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 20
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* Col. Rec. Conn., Vol. 9, p. 497.
1749]
11,3
WAR BETWEEN ENGLAND, FRANCE AND SPAIN
of the Gospel, to choose their own collectors, who should collect then taxes in the same manner as other societies in the colony. Ils petition, however, met with so much opposition from the Rev. Mathew Graves of New London, " who appears to have been a turbulent, tyrannical, feli- seeking lover of power in the English Church, that it was never brought before the Legislature."
1749. Colonel Andrew Burr and Judge Ebenezer Silliman were pres ent as Assistants at the meeting of the General Assembly at Hartford on the 11th of May, and Captain John Read and Mr. David Rowland as deputies from Fairfield.
Ebenezer Silliman was again chosen one of the Judges of the Supe rior Court of the colony. Colonel Andrew Burr was made Judge of ille Probate Court of Fairfield.
His Grace the Duke of Bedford, having notified the Governor and Company of Connecticut that the treaty of peace agreed upon at Vix la Chapelle between England, France and Spain had been ratified. Gover nor Laws ordered a proclamation of this treaty to be proclaimed by the sheriff of the County of Hartford, at the usual place of military parade before the State House in Hartford, May 16th.
So great had been the expenses of the colony in sustaining the wars against Spain and France that the currency had sadly depreciated, and it was found difficult to meet the return payment of the bills of credit which had been issued from time to time. But hoping that some allow ance would be sent from England, the Assembly ordered: " That all such allowances of sterling money that are made by the Parliament of Great Britain towards reimbursing the expenses of the Colony in the late expedition against Cape Breton, & such as should be made for the expenses of this Colony, in the late intended expedition against Canada. are hereby fully appropriated & shall be improved for the calling in, ev changing, sinking and discharging of the new outstanding bills of credit made & issued by this colony.
The Governor was authorized "to draw bills of exchange on our agent at Great Britain for the standing money that is or shall be paid into his hands. for reimbursing the colony for the allowances made as soon as information should reach him that it had been paid in Great Britain; " and that he should appropriate it towards reimbursing the ex- penses of the colony; " to receive one half the value thereof in the bills of public credit of the colony, & the other half in coined sterling silver alloy."
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HISTORY OF FAIRFIELD
[1749
A committee was appointed to receive and make sale of the bills of public credit thus exchanged from the treasurer, "count, burn & consume them to ashes," and report the sum or sums thus received to the Assembly. Upon receipt of the silver coin procured for the bills of exchange when fully lodged in the hands of the treasurer, he was directed to pay it out in exchange for the colony bills of credit, bought and redeemed for such ex- change by the committee, at the same rate that the silver money was received; and such bills of credit thus redeemed should be counted by them, and that they should then "burn & consume them to ashes." But as this reimbursement would not be sufficient to fully discharge the whole outstanding colony bills of credit, the Assembly granted three taxes to be levied on all the polls and taxable estates of the colony, one in 1751, the second in 1752, and the third in 1753. Out of these three taxes the sum of nine thousand pounds new tenor bills in each respective year when received was to be consumed to ashes. A tax of three pence on the pound was levied on all the polls and taxable estates of the colony of 1749, 1750 and 1752 to redeem this order. These taxes were to be paid into the treasury " in new tenor-bills of the colony, or in old tenor-bills equivalent to three shillings and sixpence in the old tenor for one shilling of the new; or in Spanish milled dollars in pieces of eight, at thirteen shillings nine pence new tenor each, or in other silver coin or gold equivalent." * Out of these several taxes Fairfield bore her proportion towards the ex- penses of Great Britain's war with Spain and France.
The taxable estates of Fairfield were valued at £47,018 14s. Iod., one thousand pounds less than those of New Haven, and almost eight thou- sand pounds more than those of Hartford. t
The Indian Sachem at Reading, at this time called Captain Chicken, applied to the Assembly for a deed of two hundred acres of land at a place called Scattacook, laid out to him by Captain John Read October II, 1748, which he had exchanged for land in Reading, reserved to him- self at the time he deeded his other lands to Captain Simon Couch. The Assembly granted that the several pieces of land thus exchanged be legally confirmed and deeded to Captain Chicken.#
* Col. Rec. Conn., Vol. IX, p. 447. + Col. Rec. Conn., Vol. IX, p. 491. # Col. Rec. Conn., Vol. IX, p. 434.
CHAPTER XII
1750-1700
FRENCH AND ENGLISH WAAR IN AMERICA
Connecticut soldiers. - Religious dissensions. - Civil uod m ft ry Mies of 174 England .- English laws introduced -Reply to Figiob Bend of Ir tf 1 . Peter Penfield's Mill .- Death of Col. John Burr. Kelly . ..... | England .- New Congregational Church .- Death of Bishop Building. - ( officers of 1751 .- French projects in America. - Persecution of breath torles C m'n' alliance with Six Nations. - Form of prayer for King George 11. Burot & amen. Stratfield bounds enlarged .- Civil and military officers of 1-52 - Gift risiken lands. - Law for Sabbath Day .- Civil and military offersof 1753 -In for Cone- Houses of Correction. - Epidemic .- Tobacco. - War preparatois New Style calendar .- Congregationalism at Yale College. - Refere con komme -Civil and military officers of 17544 .- English traders mur lere I by Focncd - Iet Tio Corine taken .- Colonel Washington -Connecticut petitions Engfuel for issist aus pol ur tete Grand council of war at Albany .- Combination of colonies ur ler ene fre der 1 0 ot Great Britain for taxing colonies .- Religious controversy .~- Don tias of BislimeEr8 \ N! Governor Vale to Vale College .- King's College .- President Telnsm. bilenil sospese to King's requirements .- Bills of Credit .- War tax -Fairhe ! War Committee - Itags 1 war. - Reimbursement from England .- Bounty niobey -Chief officer. Com to call out troops .- England's act against paper money. Colony act for por fy -Cy
against the French. - French army and navy. - Troops for Crown Fout - B 5 01 Orffs. - Connecticut officers of Fourth Regiment. - Increase of Bills of Crell ant Unes Silliman commissioner to New York. - Arrival of English fhet. - Handy prie 8PCT
parations of Gens. Johnson and Lyman on Lake George. - Attack on Jo'i-minor ( Delee of the French .- Colonel Mocton's victory at Nova Scotia -General Bradback - Jelent at Tuare Du Quesne .- Bravery of Colonel Washington. - Governor Shadey's tomas ago disheartened .- Erected Fort Ontario,- Bravery of Connecticut forces rew e lei Fairfield parsonage and school lands, -Secret council against the Bands. - Vai ter kin
-
for money .- Gratuity to Connecticut forces. - Act to preserve hatom file
prisoners sent to Fairfield .- Commissioners sent to New York to passate 150 -Chine ticut preparations .- Crown Point. - Connecticut borrows maury - laws toten f - ciler arms and ammunition .- Fairfield Council of War. - lete that Tremila want to 1 . can Civil and military officers of 1756 .- Law against bribery in cle tours. long ats-lom to private individuals .- England sends timely money. - Hast ily - Wir Den ar dag . ticos May 18th .- Preparations to defeat the French at al point - Lerl wnt Bit Loss of fort at Oswego. - General Webb's incompeterey - creme
Industry of colonial troops .- Earl of London in Connecticut -Freigh ant Fellay Mont -Gold and silver from England .- Embargo on smin anil previ is .- 1 .st day = 1 red troops for Lake George. - Officers of Fourth Regiment. - Band Enslin's vestir alors -Fairfield parishes .- Weston parish .- Strattield Baptists .- New P'titec. Jail beanile -
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HISTORY OF FAIRFIELD
[1750
Commissioners to meet at Boston on war, January, 1757 .- Collections taken in churches .- Public lottery for colony expenses .- Civil and military officers of 1757 .- Preparation of troops to march .- Norfield bounds. - Public, shipping, and tea taxes on merchandise and peddlers .- Lieut .- Col. John Read .- Connecticut's noble response for troops .- Change from Crown Point to Louisburg-Large forces sent from England .- Expedition relinquished .- French achieve- ments .- Fort William Henry reduced .- Albany threatened .- Connecticut sends large rein- forcements-Great distress on frontiers .- English officers disgraced .- Fourth Regiment troops at Fort Edward .- General Council of War at New York .- Officers promoted .- Fairfield war taxes .- English soldiers at Fairfield .- Rev. Seth Pomeroy minister at Greenfield .- Baptists at Stratfield. - King's orders for large army to invade Canada .- Fresh troops raised and Bills of Credit .- Heavy taxes .- Commissioners .- Embargo on ships .- Military and civil officers of 1758,-British activity .- Connecticut agents to England .- Fairfield agent to Albany .- Fast day .- British troops at Fairfield .- Lottery .- Supplies for troops at Fort Edward and Station No. 4 .- Roads to Albany .- Bell Foundry .- Troops from England .- Louisburg and St. Johns taken .- Forts Du Quesne and Frontenac taken .- Abercrombie's defeat at Fort Ticonderoga .- Besieged and taken by General Bradstreet .- Connecticut raises more forces and money .- Fair- field officers .- David Rowland to assist in counting seven chests of English money .- Civil and military officers of 1759 .- More troops raised .- Brigade major .- English troops quartered at Fairfield .- Ticonderoga, Crown Point, and Isle Aux Noix taken .- Surrender of Quebec .- Preparations to take Montreal,-Fairfield taxes .- Old Lights and New Lights.
1750. WITHIN the past decade the inhabitants of Fairfield had nobly borne their share of men and the burdensome expenses levied upon them during England's wars with Spain and France. The Meeting-house Green had witnessed many arrivals of volunteers for the war. From Black Rock harbor the soldiers had embarked for New London to join the troops from the other Connecticut and Rhode Island towns. Whatever sorrow had befallen them from death and the return of dis- abled soldiers they bravely endured, and welcomed with them the return of peace.
While religious dissensions had distracted and caused bitter contro- versies, and even persecution, within the colony, a spirit of wise quietude seems to have continued in Fairfield. The rigor, however, of the acts passed by the General Assembly to suppress the Calvinistic doctrines of the New Lights or Separatists from the constitutional laws of the es- tablished church of the colony continued to rankle in the hearts of many. and eventually awakened a spirit of controversy even at Fairfield. Lib- erty of conscience was the common theme of all classes and conditions of men, and self-government and freedom from the exactions and op- pressions of England was uppermost in many minds; in fact, all the American colonies began to realize their own strength and power to cope with the evils which surrounded and oppressed them.
16,
FRENCH AND ENGLISH WAR IN AMERICA
1750]
At the opening of the General Assembly at Hartford. May roth. Judge Ebenezer Silliman and Colonel Andrew Burr were present a Assistants, and Captain John Read and Mr. David Rowland as deputi from Fairfield.
Colonel Andrew Burr and Mr. David Rowland were appointed to thank the Rev. Noah Hobart for his election sermon, delivered at the opening of the Assembly, and to desire a copy that it might be printed Judge Ebenezer Silliman was appointed one of the Judges of the Supe rior Court of the colony. Colonel Andrew Burr was made Judge of the County Court and of the District Probate Court of Fairfield.
Mr. Joshua Hall was commissioned ensign of the train band of Read- ing, and Mr. Daniel Sherwood lieutenant. Daniel Burrit cornet, an | F26l Hawley quartermaster of the Fourth Regiment of the colony.
"A vote was passed that the sterling money granted by the Polyment of woont Britain to this Colony, for reimbursing their expenses in taking & ccionk Cije Br .vi & which may be granted for their expenses in the late expedity n against Capela, headed bills of exchange drawn therefore." Fearing some advantage mult be taken by finde residents of the colony. it was enacted : " That no part of sum of the sterling money is re said shall be sold to, nor any bill of exchange drawn therefore m favor of any prior who is not now an inhabitant within this Colony." Persons applying for the & biff af efter were not permitted to have them unless under oath giving full satt ta ton that they intended using them only on their own or on the proper account of some of the ettlet in habitants of the Colony. The Committee were ordered to sell ten thousand porel ster ne of these bills of exchange to be drawn in favor of the inhabitants of the Colony. " &to make & execute proper obligatory bonds, with two good & sufficient suretres, piscine forte Governor & Company of this Colony one-half in comed silver spring also. at the rate of five shillings & four pence per ounce Troy weight, or m tan kel will equivalent; & the other half in the now outstanding bills of credit of this Chiens chant lent thereto at or before the first day of May. 1751. with interest at three pords A. centum per annum thereof, in like silver or gold, which interest shall be schre 1 by overal distinct bonds to be paid the first day of May annually " It was ap resolved that the Governor should " be altogether saved harmless from all manner of cash & m . & co pense that might in any way arise on account of his drawing any bill or bells of Achance ordered by the Assembly on the non-payment of protesting the and "+
Various question and acts for governing his Majesty's plantations in America were presented to the Assembly in a printed form, to be di- tributed throughout the colony. The several acts were mostly for the encouragement and benefit of his Majesty's trade in Great Britain, stich as fisheries, the growth of raw silk in America, the importation of pig iron from America to England. " & to prevent the creation of any mill
* Col Rec. Conn., Vol. IX, P 526. + Cin. Rec. C nf., Vol. 1X 1. 516
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HISTORY OF FAIRFIELD
[1750
or other engine for slitting or rolling of iron ; or of any plating forge to work with a tilt-hammer; or any furnace for making steel in any of the said colonies." These oppressive acts were not made for the prosperity of the colonies, but solely for the advantage of English trade, and were most of them regarded as destructive to the vital interests and existence of the colonies .*
Andrew Burr was commissioned colonel and Mr. Ebenezer Silliman major of the Fourth Regiment of the colony.t
Mr. Ebenezer Hubbell was commissioned captain, Mr. Benjamin Seeley lieutenant, and Mr. Daniel Noble ensign of the north company train-band of New Fairfield.
The taxable estates of Fairfield were valued at £47,561 2s. 2d.
Two hundred and fifty newly printed books of the laws of the colony were ordered to be distributed to the counties, of which forty-seven were to be sent to the County of Fairfield. +
In reply to the series of questions sent from the Board of Trade and Plantations in England, a letter was dispatched about this time, in which a full account of the trade, shipping, manufactures, natural products, money in circulation, mines, whites, Indians and blacks, military forts and defences, strength of the neighboring Indians, influence of the French and Spanish colonies, the revenue and expenses of the colony and the established military and civil government.
The number of the inhabitants of the colony was represented to be about 70,000 whites, 500 Indians and 1,000 blacks. The militia about 10,000, from sixteen to fifty years of age. The Indians were represented to be idle and excessive drinkers, and that the French Canadians and Indians gave constant alarm from their fort at Crown Point in depreda- tions on the frontiers of the neighboring colonies.§
At a town meeting held in March, Peter Penfield was given liberty to erect a grist mill on Ash-House Creek, near the mouth of the Unquowa River. I
On the 15th of December the useful, patriotic and valuable life of Colonel John Burr ended and his eyes closed on the scenes of earth. He died in his family mansion near the border-line between Stratfield and Fairfield, in the seventy-ninth year of his age. This place is known as
* Col. Rec. Conn., Vol. IX, p. 551. + Col. Rec. Conn., Vol IX, p. 565.
# Col. Rec. Conn., Vol. IX, p. 580. § Col. Rec. Conn., Vol. IX, p. 594.
Il Fairfield Town Votes.
16
FRENCH AND ENGLISH WAR IN AMERICA
1750]
the mansion northeast of the New York, New Haven and Hartford RR which will be remembered by many from the grand oak standing on his grounds, which died from the top downwards, until only the lower branches for many years sent out its leaves, so touching pointing to the life of its owner, who gave the best energies of his young lite to the ecclesiastical, civil and military interests of the town of Funfjell and to the Colony of Connecticut, until the vital forces of his brage manhood gave place to the withering decay of old age. The land about hi Hon e was purchased of the Sagamores of the Pequennock Indians, and it is said he effected this purchase while standing with them un ler thher mel old oak. His life was one of great energy and manh dignity in all the public events of the colony. He was a Christian statesman and sol dier, and he died as all such men die, happy in the prospect of a glory ous immortality .* He was buried in the old l'equonnoch congres al Stratfield.
Fairfield did not wholly escape, even with the well-disciplined and cultivated Christian education of its inhabitants, something of the spirit of controversy which disturbed the colony during this year
They were not a little disturbed on account of a controversy between the Rev. Noah Hobart and the Rev. Mr. Beach of Reading. Mr. Hobart published two addresses, " To the Members of the Episcopal Separation in New England." He argued that he was " under a full conviction that their separation was unjustifiable in itself, & in its effects very kartiul to the country, & to the cause of practical religion in it, & that it would. if it prevailed, prove pernicious to their posterity.
" The Rev. Moses Dickinson, the minister of the Congreg tal Cleirth st Norwalk. wrote an appendix to the second address. The Rev. Mr. Whatmore wi Rye, the Rise Dr Henry Caner of Boston, & the Rev. Dr. Samuel Johnson of Stratford also le: an pions on the side of the Church of England. Mr Hobart & lis incels armel tot the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts had note affofed Ihihiele to their first pretensions, viz. : that of converting the heathen & Ich die in New Fudbal. according to the tenor of their charter, & sending their mesi maries lou for int 1 toME The ministers of the Church of England, on the other hand, argent that the water alone the object of the Honorable Society, but they were also sent to mister tor much people as professed to be members of the Church of England "t
Controversies in those days were carried to great lengths, and party feeling on both sides was far from being controlled by the grace of charity.
* See Burr. Appendix Genealogies f Rev. Noah Hobart's Second Address, p 0.
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HISTORY OF FAIRFIELD
[1750
They no doubt accomplished some good ; but they also did a great deal of harm.
The new acts of the General Assembly, which obliged all the churches to be taxed for the support of the established churches of the colony, were particularly oppressive, and while the New Lights or Calvinists and the Baptists clamored against them, the ministers and people of the Church of England sought redress in an appeal made by Rev. Dr. Samuel Johnson to the Lord Bishop of London, at which time he continued to urge upon the Bishop the great necessity of a bishop in America. He begged direction of the Society how to proceed to obtain a title for holy orders for his young candidates; " whether £30 from the people can be accepted for a title, & if so, to whom they can apply for orders, since they have no title from the Society for a long time." ' They will, however," he wrote, " in the meantime, do as they best can, & I beg to be under the societie's direction & control, that if no Bishop should come over into these parts, we may be advised in time enough for them to go home in the fall, whether orders can be had upon such a title, and from whom."
In reply to these importunities the Bishop of London thus wrote to Dr. Johnson in the spring of 1752:
" I think myself at present in a very bad situation; Bishop of a vast country, without power or influence, or any means of promoting true religion ; sequestered from the people over whom I have the care, & must never hope to see; I should be tempted to throw off all this care quite, were it not for the sake of preserving even the appearance of an Episcopal Church in the plantations."
About the same time Dr. Johnson complained to the King of the op- pressive laws of the colony, and requested an amendment in the Charter. of Charles II .*
" Unfortunately the severe measures taken by the colony," says Dr. Benjamin Trum- bull, " of enforcing the established church constitution by law, which never was originally designed, & was undoubtedly inconsistent with the rights of conscience, gave further ground of disaffection to the constitution of the established church, & of separation from the standing churches. The shutting out of the zealous & powerful preachers from their pulpits by numbers of the ministers; the suspending of persons from the communion of the churches, for hearing them in other parishes, had a further ill tendency to create dis- trust in their own ministers as to their real religion & to alienate their minds from them." At the same time Dr. Trumbull continues to state : " It is also abundantly evident, from the accounts given of those times, that there was a great defect with respect to the plain &
* Hist. Prot. Epis. Church in Conn., Bishops Francis L. Hawkes, D.D., and William Stephen Perry.
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FRENCH AND ENGLISH WAR IN AMERICA
1750]
faithful preaching of the doctrmes of the reformation, of . riemal . the supernatural influences of the Divine Spirit, maturation by tate ching up a the saints' perseverance. These doctrines were very hitthe preichel & tomatel / h of the clergy. Some were evidently Arminians. Other there were who pred sell gut any distinguishing, so that it could not be told what their opinion were separate preachers, & the cruel manner in winch they were treated, tereut talleser them & fix them in their prejudices & separation With re peit to the crime włochy -una- of the separates seemed to hold at first, I do not find, by inquiry, that over the game hol or propagated them; especially with respect to the doctrine of the Inuits, they prophet nothing, I believe, contrary to sound doctrine Exclusive of some partiler, me especially relative to the constitution of churches & church drapli, they shallmed the doctrines contained in the Westminster Catechism & confession of Luth"
There is no doubt whatever but that large numbers throughout all New England, as well as in other parts of the country, were awakerol to the full consciousness of vital Christianity, and that many were de- voted followers of the Lord Jesus is fully proved by the writing of our most reliable historians.
The desire on the part of the established churches of the colony to enforce by legislative acts their peculiar line of thought upon all classes made it so plain to many that church and state would not exist under at republican form of government, that there arose throughout the colony a strong feeling of opposition against the existence of any established church whatever. To sever church and state had been the original de- sign of their forefathers in coming to America. Liberty of conscience had been their watchword. Scarcely a century had passed when their descendants found themselves as closely bound to the control of an e- tablished church as that from which their ancestors had fled.
The approaching prospect of a bishop in the colony awakened a spirit not only of great opposition on the part of the established churches, but of persecution. The Church of England at Fairfield and Reading was composed of large numbers of the inhabitants of the town; and while by no means in numbers equal to those of the established church, they ever- cised a considerable power among the people. The Covenant of Green's Farms Congregational church, which undoubtedly was a copy of the first Covenant of Christ's Church at Fairfield, plainly shows that our forefathers were bitterly opposed to priestly power: for, while they " sol emily devoted themselves & their seed to the Lord to be His people." they added : "avouching Almighty God for our God & portion, avonch- ing the Lord Jesus Christ for our Prophet & Teacher, & for our oply Priest & Propitiation, & for our only King & Law Giver."
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