USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > Fairfield > The history of Fairfield, Fairfield County, Connecticut, from the settlement of the town in 1639 to 1818, Vol. II > Part 12
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On the night of the 29th of October a heavy earthquake is repre- sented to have shaken the whole American Continent. Dr. Trumbull states :
* Col. Rec. Conn., Vol. 7, p. 132. + Col. Rec. Conn., Vol. 7. p. 127.
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" That although the preaching of the gospel was not without success at this time, & though there was tolerable peace & order in the churches, yet there was too generally a great decay, as to the life & power of godliness; yet abundant were the lamentations before God on the part of the ministers & people of the Colony, with many days of fasting & prayer kept in the churches, to seek the special influences of the Holy Spirit in the awakening & sanctification of the people.
The terror occasioned by this earthquake produced a temporary conviction of sin in the hearts of many, who had previously neglected the worship of God; but in a majority of cases, it appears to have been more the result of fear, than of genuine repentance. In several places the ministers took advantage of the occasion to preach to their people of that true repentance which springs from a desire to become Christians out of love to God; & the danger of repentance from fear or expediency. But all this was of little avail. The hearts of great numbers became still more hardened in sin. The country was visited with sore sicknesses ; epidemics prevailed & great mortality followed. It appeared to them as if the face of God was turned away from them, & that He was laying upon them the punishment of their ungodliness."
Sadly had the third generation departed from that zeal in promoting a strictly . conscientious walk before God which had characterized the first generation in the colony. Vices of divers kinds had crept in, and although historians tell us such a thing as a profane oath was never heard, or a man drunk never seen in the early settlements of the colonies, these evils now became the crying sins of the third generation. But as God was ever merciful to our forefathers, in His own good time He sought them out and manifested to them the mercies of His pardoning love.
1728. At a meeting of the Governor and Council in February it was reported that Mr. John Denny of Fairfield and others in the counties of Fairfield and New Haven had been engaged in selling and vending their goods by lottery without license, whereby many innocent persons lost their money. This matter was taken into consideration in January, and a law passed prohibiting any further lotteries, under a heavy penalty. Timothy Green was ordered to print sixty copies of this act, which were to be posted in the county towns of Fairfield, New Haven, Hartford and New London.
It appears that the law passed in May of 1727, releasing the members of the Church of England from being taxed for the support of the Estab- lished Church of the colony affected those only who lived near the min- ister of the Church of England, while those who lived a mile or more from him were taxed in the same way as they had been before this law was enacted.
* Trumbull's Hist., Conn., Vol. 2, pp. 134-137.
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The Rev. Henry Caner, who had returned in safety from his voyage to England, and been settled as rector of the Church of England at Fair field, reported soon after his return to the Lord Bishop of London :
" That although the Dissenters had lately passed an act to exempt all professors ot the Church from paying taxes to the support of their minister, yet they take the liberty to determine themselves who may be called Churchmen, & interpret that act to compre- lend none that live a mile from the Church minister ; by which means, not only two thirds of the Church, but of its revenues likewise we are entirely deprived of the benefit of. & the favor they would seem to do us, prove, in reality, but a shadow."
At the same time Mr. Caner wrote to the Secretary the following letter:
" FAIRFIELD, March 15, 1728. Rev. Sir :
The heavy taxes levied for the support of dissenting ministers, joined with a small & voluntary offering to the Church renders them almost incapable of carrying on the Church, which is not yet finished, nor in any way likely to be so at present. The truth Is the people are heartily ready & willing to do their utmost to be as little burdensome to the honorable society as possible; but being generally poor, & Fairfield being the chief seat of the Dissenter's opposition, they are able to contribute but little to the support of that worship, which their consciences urge them to maintain.
Besides Fairfield, which I constantly serve, & the villages contiguous, which belong to that town, as Pequonnock, Green's Farms, & Greenfield, I have several times preached this winter at Norwalk, a town twelve miles distant from Fairfield, & at Stamford, which is twenty miles distant, & at Greenwich, about twenty-seven miles distant from Fairfield. & which is the utmost town within the borders of this government westward. Besides these, there is a village, northward of Fairfield, about eighteen miles, containing twenty families, where there is no minister at all of any denomination whatever ; the name of it is Chestnut Ridge, & where I usually preach or lecture once in three weeks. Newtown which is about twenty-two miles northwest of Fairfield; Ridgefield & Danbury. the one seventeen & the other twenty-three miles distant from Fairfield. In most of the above places there are seven, ten or fifteen professing the Church of England, from which places, joined with Fairfield, the taxes strained from members of the Church for the support of dissenting teachers amount to froo, which is about f40, sterling, of which Fairfield pays about half. The taking away of these sums very much hinders the building they are carrying on, as well as of contributions to the support of a minister, for which latter use, they are not able to raise above fio sterling per annum.
Notwithstanding this discouragement the Church grows & increases very much, four families being added since my coming, one whom was a Jew,* whose wife only was before a christian. This person, besides his excellent skill in Hebrew & Greek, & other Eastern languages, is well studied in Rabbinical learning. & is a very accomplished person upon all accounts ; neither is his conversation balanced with any views of interest or friendship, as I can learn, but upon very good & serious principles, he embraces the Christian faith, being baptised with his family very lately.
Besides these, since September last, I have baptised one adult & seventeen infants, one
* This Jew was Andrus Truby. the ancestor of the Truby family of Fairfield.
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whereof was an ingenious Indian, & have eight new communicants, the whole number of which is now forty-nine. I have further prospects likewise of baptising two other Indians in a short time, of about thirty years of age, who are very seriously disposed, & attend divine worship with some constancy.
HENRY CANER." *
He also mentions " another Jew, a very sober, sensible young gentle- man whom I have been instrumental in bringing over to the Christian faith." This Jew's name was Mr. Mordecai Marks.
In the month of April the Rev. Dr. Johnson of Stratford wrote to the Secretary: "That those who live a mile or more from the Church of England are still persecuted by those who call themselves the Established Church, & treat us as dissenters."
To prevent a practice which had crept into the towns in the colony of warning their training, town meeting, society and proprietor days, on the Sabbath day, the Assembly passed the following act: "That for the future, all such warnings & notifications, on the Lord's Day, except pub- lications of intents or purposes of marriage, shall be deemed illegal, & of none effect."
And it was further enacted:
" That it shall be lawful for any person, & the duty of the grand-jurymen, constables & thything-men in the several towns & societies in this government, to pull down & destroy every written or printed notification or proclamation about secular affairs, that shall or may be fixed upon the door, or any other part of the meeting-house, or house of God, in any of the towns or societies within this Colony on the Sabbath or Lord's day, or on fast or thanksgiving days, & not suffer such notifications or warnings to stand or abide thereon upon the Lord's day.
And every person who shall presume to set up or fix any such written notification, as above said, on the Lord's day, in order to be seen & read on the Lord's day by the people, contrary to this act, being convicted thereof before any one assistant or justice of the peace, shall pay a fine of ten shillings for every such offence to the town treasury of said town, for the use of the poor in said town."+
1728. Mr. Robert Silliman and Mr. Samuel Burr represented Fair- field at the meeting of the General Assembly at Hartford on the 9th of May. Major John Burr was appointed Judge of the County Court and of the Probate Court and Justice of the Peace of Fairfield. Mr. Samuel Burr was made one of the treasury auditors.
A Court of Probate was ordered to be held at Stamford for that * Bishops Hawkes and Perry's, Hist. Prot. Episcopal Church, p. 128.
+ Col. Rec. Conn., Vol. 7, p. 186.
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town and for Greenwich and Ridgefield, but all appeals from that court were to be made to the Superior Court at Fairfieldl.
As no law existed for the punishment of private lotteries, "which were growing at a prodigious rate," the proclamation which had been made in January and sent particularly to the towns of Fairfield and Nor- walk, notwithstanding which John Denny of Fairfield and one Samuel Cluckstone of Norwalk, having held the proclamation and the authorities in contempt, and wilfully continued the sale of lottery tickets, the As- sembly saw fit to order them both to appear before them. The sheriff of the country was ordered forthwith to bring the said Denny and Cluck- stone to answer " for contempt of authority." Accordingly the offenders were in a few days brought before the Assembly, when, upon making due confession of their guilt, and explanation of not having received the printed proclamation until their lottery tickets had been sold, and that since then they had not had any lotteries, but fully observed the law, the Assembly accepted their submission, and upon paying the charges of the prosecution they were dismissed. A law was enacted that all such offenders should be arrested and "their goods, monies by wagers on shooting, or anything whatsoever be forfeited. one half of which should be given to the prosecutor & the other half to the county treasurer .*
Mr. John Silliman was confirmed captain of the train-band of Fair- field.
The ecclesiastical affairs of Fairfield appear to have been the chief and most enthusiastic matters of interest at this period.
In October the Rev. Mr. Caner reported to the Secretary of the So- ciety for the Propagation of the Gospel :
" That the Indians in numbers were very small about Fairfieldl, by reason of the vicious lives they led, with their excessive drinking, which destroys them apace ; & of those few that remain, to the eternal shame of the English in these parts, it must be said, that, although I constantly labor with them, as I find them in my way, yet very seldom conceive hopes of doing them any good, who have taken up an inveterate prejudice against Christianity, grounded on the shamefully wicked lives of us its professors."
In order to evade the law which prevented his parishioners who re- sided at a distance from paying towards the support of the Congrega- tional Church, he proposed to the Society that instead of being appointed a missionary at Fairfield only he should be sent an instrument, under their common seal, appointing him their missionary, to serve from Fair-
* Col. Rec. Conn., 1717-1725, p. 161.
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field to Byram river, on the borders of the government westward," by which means he would be under obligations to reside sometimes at one of these places and sometimes at another, as the necessity of either might require. In this way he hoped to administer to all who professed the faith of the Church of England, as well as to gain the revenues of the more remote church people.
This step was not, however, thought advisable by the members of the Society, and it was decided that Mr. Caner's plan was not wise, as it could not escape the law.
Three societies had, from time to time, been granted parish privileges and been severed from the old Prime Society. With Pequonnock there had been a serious quarrel indeed. Green's Farms and Greenfield had also bravely maintained their rights to maintain a church and school of their own. Whether experience, the remoteness of Lone-town, the un- fortunate condition of its inhabitants in religious privileges or an effort on the part of the Church of England to form a parish in that region induced the good people of Fairfield to part with them with a better grace than they had exhibited towards the other parishes is a matter of some interest. Upon the pages of the town records is to be found the following note:
Dec. 30, 1728. Upon the request of Mr. John Read of Lone-town in ye behalf of Lone-town, Chestnut Ridge & the peculiar, between Fairfield & Danbury, requesting yt. there should be two miles of ye rear end of ye Long Lots of said Fairfield added unto said peculiar in order to make a parish, was voted in the affirmative.
The General Court met at New Haven October 10th, when Major John Burr and Mr. Samuel Burr represented Fairfield.
An act for enlarging the County of Fairfield was passed by a vote: " That all that tract of land called New Fairfield, lying north of Dan- bury, west of New Milford & east of the government line, shall be an- next to the County of Fairfield."*
A law was passed that for every wolf killed in any of the towns in the colony a reward of ten shillings should be paid to any person thus en- gaged, as well as ten shillings out of the town treasury where the wolf was taken.
An act was passed that no person should vote in any society meeting " for the choice of a minister or officers, grants, rates, erecting meeting
* Col. Rec. Conn .. Vol. 1725-1735, p. 214.
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houses, regulating schools, or any other thing proper to be voted for in a society, unless a freeholder rated at fifty or forty pounds in the com- mon list, or that are persons in full communion with the church "; on penalty of forfeiting ten shillings for every such offence.
1729. At the meeting of the General Assembly, May 8th, at Hart- ford, Major John Burr and Mr. Samuel Burr represented Fairfield. John Burr, Esq., was chosen an assistant of the General Assembly and also Judge of the Fairfield County Court.
Mr. Samuel Burr was commissioned lieutenant and Mr. Samuel Squire ensign of the first train-band of Fairfield. Mr. Daniel Hubbell was com- missioned lieutenant of the train-band of Stratfield.
Upon the memorial of John Read in behalf of himself, & the rest of the inhabitants of Lone Town, Chestnut Ridge, & the Peculiar between Fairfield & Danbury, shewing to this Assembly the great difficulty they labor under in attending on the public worship of God, & the forwardness of the town of Fairfield to encourage them to set up the public worship of God among themselves, by conceding that two miles of the rear end of their iong-lots be added to them, in order to make them a parish; & praying this assembly that they may be allowed to be a society for the worship of God, with the privileges granted to such societies or parishes, & that said society or parish may comprize those lands that lie encircled betwixed the townships of Fairfield, Danbury, Newtown & Ridgefield, together with the aforesaid two miles of Fairfield long lots; & that they may have remitted to them their county rate during the pleasure of this Assembly; & that all the lands aforesaid may be taxed by the order of said Assembly; & that said parish be annexed to Fairfield; & that it be named Reading;
This Assembly grants that the said Lone Town, Chestnut Ridge, & the Peculiar thereof, be a society or parish by themselves, & to have all the privileges usually granted to societies or parishes, & that said society or parish shall comprize all those lands, that be encircled betwixt the townships of Fairfield, Danbury, Newtown & Ridgefield. together with the two miles of the rear end of the Fairfield long lots. Furthermore, this Assembly doth remit to them their county rates for four years, excluding those only who decline to joyn with them for what is paid for, of being released of county tax ; & that all the laid out unimproved lands, within the limits of said parish, be taxed six shillings a hundred acres per year for four years; & that the money raised thereby be improved for the defraying the ministerial charges among them in that place; & that said parish be named Reading .*
The meeting-house was not completed until 1732. It was built in the centre of the public square, a few yards west of the present Methodist church.
The Rev. William Nathaniel Hunn was elected minister of the parish January 31, 1733. Two years afterwards Mr. Hunn was married to Miss Ruth Read by the Rev. Noah Hobart of Fairfield. Miss Read
* Col. Rec. Conn., Vol. 1725-1735, P. 231.
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was the daughter of the Hon. John Read, who settled at Lonetown in 1714, and a sister of Colonel John Read of the Read Manor at Reading .*
At the same time that Reading was made a parish, A Memorial, dated May 26, 1729, of Isaac Brown and the rest of the wardens and vestry- men of the Church of England was presented to the Assembly :
-" praying for redress from taxes & persecution ;" & requesting "liberty to manage their own affairs as a society, according to the canons & rubrics of the Church of England ;" & expressing their adherence to that Church, "let the difficulties be never so great." This petition was signed by,
ISAAC BROWN
Vestrymen of
BENJAMIN BURTT
Stratford.
SAMUEL LYON
Church wardens
MOSES WARD
of Fairfield.
MOSES KNAP
HENRY JAMES
Vestrymen of
NATHAN ADAMS
Fairfield.
JOHN LOCKWOOD
The petition was rejected, and feelings of bitter resentment engen- dered, which in after years proved most unfortunate.
It appears that the members of the Church of England in New York took a lively interest in the condition of the churchmen of Fairfield, in consequence of which John Rodman, Samuel Bonne and Edward Burling addressed a letter to the General Assembly of Connecticut, desiring them not to imprison their brethren. They wished them to consider "that they were a distinct society of christian protestants, as well as they were, & have through the mercy of God free toleration for the exercise of their religion, and that they took care to build a meeting-house of their own, and other concerns of their religion, without being burdensome to others-therefore they think it not unreasonable for them to force any of their friends, seeing that we are all dissenters from the maternal church. They recommend that all who go out of their churches to join the Church of England be provided with certificates." +
The age of religious toleration was, however, slowly advancing. The glorious dawn of liberty had not yet shed its genial rays of light and blessing upon our beloved country; but, step by step, year by year it
* Fairfield Parish Records. Charles Burr Todd in his Ilistory of Redding, has corrected the mistake of Mr. Barlow and Mr. Law in supposing that the original John Read lived and died in Reading. He removed to Boston in 1722, and his son John succeeded to his title and to the Manor at Lonetown."
Connecticut Ecclesiastical Society Records, Vol. B.
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was gaining ground, and the long looked and hoped for day was not now far distant when the vast Republic of the United States should offer a home, not only to her own people, but to those who sought her pro- tection from all the kingdoms of the world.
The Assistants of the General Assembly were voted qd per mile " for their travel to & fro from the Assembly, & os. od per diem exclusive of the Sabbath day." The representatives were allowed "7s. per diem & 3d. per mile for travel."*
On the 29th of May, " At a church-meeting in ye old Parish of Fair- field," Mr. Lothrop Lewis was chosen a Deacon of the Congregational Church by a major vote of the Brethren.
Meanwhile the Prime Ancient Society continued to flourish under the ministry of the talented Rev. Mr. Hobart.
" At ye same meeting it was voted that the worshipful Mr. John Gold should set & read the Psalm, & in case he be absent or indisposed that his brother Mr. Samuel Gold should do it."
The Assembly met at New Haven, October 9th, when an important change was made for the benefit of freemen in the several towns. Pre- viously the names of freemen entitled to vote were enrolled in the secre- tary's office of the colony. As the towns increased in numbers and in population it became difficult to always make quick returns, specially from the remote towns. It was, therefore, enacted that the town clerks in each town should make a list of the freemen, which list " should be made in the open freemen's-meeting, legally assembled, by the direc- tion of the authority & selectmen of the town." It was further enacted : " that none should be made freemen but in a regularly assembled meet- ing, when they should be lawfully admitted & sworn freemen, & their names enrolled by the town clerk." +
An amusing anecdote is related by one of the oldest inhabitants of Fairfield, that upon one occasion when it was suspected that a fair vote had not been rendered a town meeting was summoned, and the oppos- ing voting parties were arranged opposite each other out upon the Military Green and duly counted.
* Col. Rec. Conn., Vol. 7, 246. + Col. Rec. Conn., Vol. 1725-1735. p. 259.
CHAPTER X 1730-1740
GROWTH AND PROSPERITY OF FAIRFIELD
State military officers .- Law for slaves .- Settlement of boundary between New York and Connec- ticut .- Value of Fairfield estates .- Maintenance and growth of the Church of England .- Law for erecting meeting-houses .- Vice to be suppressed .- Stratfield military officers .- Canaan meeting-house .- Town taxes .- Death of Dr. Laborie .- Parsonage lands .- Reading petitions England for a clergyman .- Rev. John Beach .- Towns not to entertain strangers .- Death of Rev. Joseph Webb .- Rev. Noah Hobart's ordination .- Election ball .- Church customs .- Queen Anne's munificent grant to the Church of England in America .- Dean Berkeley's visit to America .- His gift of books and scholarship to Yale College .- Diversion of Queen Anne's gift .- Dean Berkeley's mortification and return .- Berkeley Divinity School at Middle- town .- Western Lands .- School laws .- Greenfield and Fairfield military officers .- Preserva- tion of Forests .- New bills of credit .- Value of Fairfield estates .- Encouragement of silk and linen weaving .- Manner of calling church gatherings .- Epidemic in the colony .- Decline of religious interest in families .- Sale of parsonage lands .- Church of England not allowed to share in the sale of these lands .- Law for gathering church taxes .- Capt. Samuel Couch's patent of Indian land .- New Fairfield to be settled .- Severe laws against theft and burglaries. Restrictions on tavern keepers .- Military laws .- Magistrates of 1736 .- Mutilated bills of credit .- Evangelizing the Indians .- New Fairfield .- Magistrates of 1737 .- Superior Court .- New Fairfield .- Wilton meeting house .- Green's Farm's meeting house .- Western lands .- Greenfield militia officers .- Magistrates of 1738 .- Report of Colony laws and bills of credit. - Reading .- Town privileges of New Fairfield .- Fairfield military officers .- Magistrates of 1739 .- Reading bounds .- Military and naval regulations.
1730. THE events of interest in the history of a flourishing town like Fairfield increase in proportion with its growth. The ecclesiastical struggle within the past decade had opened a wider field for religious thought. Religious controversy in those days arrayed neighbor against neighbor, but as time passed charity and good will followed, and each member of the community discovered that his neighbor was entitled to his own individual opinion and convictions. These were steps which led up to the formation of the grandest republic in the world. The Boston tea party had its day, but long before that the members of the Church of England at Fairfield had demonstrated " that taxation without representation " was as intolerant as an established church under a de- signed republican form of government.
The General Court met at Hartford, May 11th. Major John Burr
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GROWTH AND PROSPERITY OF FAIRFIELD
was elected an Assistant, and Messrs. Samuel and Thaddeus Burr repre- sentatives from Fairfield. Major John Burr was made Judge of the County Courts.
An act was passed that if any Negro, Indian or Mulatto slave should speak in a defamatory way of his master, and being convicted before a Justice of the Peace, should be whipped at the discretion of the Justice before whom the trial took place, not exceeding forty stripes.
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