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 9
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called, extended to all classes opposed to the new dogmas of the Church of Rome.
In the reign of Queen Elizabeth the Protestants were divided into two parties, those who favored the ritual order of the Church of Eng- land, which had been adopted in the reign of Edward the Sixth, and those who desired to cast aside any ritual whatever, in order to carry out what they conceived to be a purer and more simple form of worship. The desire of the latter was not at first to separate from the Church of Eng- land, but to gain pre-eminence in ecclesiastical power. In 1567, how- ever, this separation took place, and those who seceded from the church were first called Separatists. The name of Puritan also was given them, from their rigid views in regard to a religious life, as well as to their strict observance of the Sabbath. This name was first applied to those small bodies of Protestants who fled from England to the Continent dur- ing the reign of the Bloody Mary. Under the reign of Queen Elizabeth they were treated with great rigor, which but alienated their affections and caused them to cling all the more closely to their religious views. They had hoped for brighter days when King James the First, who had been partly educated under Presbyterian influence, ascended the throne. But this hope faded away under the severity of the persecutions he caused them to endure. The marriage of Charles the First to Henrietta Maria, the beautiful daughter of Henry the Great of France, was an offence in the eyes of the Puritans, and under her influence, and that of Archbishop Laud's mistaken zeal and want of gentleness for the interests of the Church of England, they turned their thoughts towards America. Here they hoped to establish a church in which they might worship their Maker without restraint from king or prelate.
At the present day we must look back upon all ecclesiastical bodies of that age as lacking in those great essentials of Christianity embodied in the new commandment of our Redeemer. "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." The age in which Puritanism had its rise was one of great religious intolerance. Whichever ecclesiastical body was in the ascendancy for the time being was chronicled with such persecutions towards those who differed from them in religious thought as cannot give any one of them an exalted place in history as having been the pos- sessors of those lovable traits which our Saviour left as a guide upon the inspired pages of His Holy Word.
The reign of Bloody Mary was marked with most cruel persecutions
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towards all who differed from the prescribed views of the Romanists. No less than three hundred Protestants suffered by fire at the stake, among whom were Archbishop Cranmer, Bishops Latimer, Hooker and Ridley.
The reign of Elizabeth, while much more mild than that of Mary towards those who differed with her in religious beliefs, was harsh and intolerant towards the Puritans. Many were imprisoned, some were ban- ished and others were hanged. The Queen declared : "that she would maintain the religion that she was crowned in, & that she was baptized in; & would suppress the Papistical religion that it should not grow; but that she would root out Puritanism, & the favorers thereof." It was during the latter part of her reign that the Rev. John Robinson and his devoted flock fled to Leyden in Holland, and who from the repeated efforts they made to leave England at this time, and in the early part of the reign of James the First, and finally to seek a home in the wilder- ness of America, have most justly been called The Pilgrim Fathers of New England.
The severity which characterized the reign of James the First, who professed even to hate the name of Puritan, caused many of those who bore this dread name to flee to Holland and finally to America.
The harsh measures pursued by Archbishop Laud in the reign of Charles the First, when the Puritans were fined, whipped, pilloried and imprisoned, is most saddening to contemplate. The barbarities inflicted upon Leighton, and afterwards upon Prynne, Bostwick and Burton, al- though accused of publishing schismatic and seditious libels, are without excuse.
But when the Puritans gained the ascendancy all righteous souls to this day have felt a chill of horror run through every vein when the mild, vacillating Charles First, through the power of the victorious Cromwell and the Puritans, was brought to the cruel block. Burnet says of this unhappy monarch: "He was much inclined to a middle way between Protestants & Papists, by which he lost the one without gaining the other."
The revenge of the persecuted Prynne, when he gained power over the aged Archbishop Laud, finds no excuse among Christian writers. The banishment of that good man, Roger Williams, who appears to have risen above the persecuting spirit of the age in which he lived, is a blot upon the historic pages of Massachusetts. The banishment also of so
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afflicted and unfortunate a lady as Mrs. Ann Hutchinson, by which she and her household became the victims of savage rage, was an act of in- tolerance lamentable in the extreme. The persecutions endured by the Quakers and the Baptists at the hands of our ancestors history cannot overlook.
These instances have been recalled lest some of us attribute to our forefathers a greater degree of Christian charity towards those who dif- fered from them in religious thought, which, in reality, they did not pos- sess. At the same time we must recall the severity of the persecutions they had endured in England, and the age in which they lived.
In contrast to the gay Cavaliers of the court of King Charles, the Puritans assumed an austerity of dress and religious deportment which became a subject of jest among the court attendants. The Cavaliers. on the other hand, "affected a gaiety & freedom of manner inconsistent with Puritanical ideas, & in order to show their contempt of Puritanical austerity, often carried their convivial humor to an indecent excess." The name of Puritan, therefore, became a term of reproach to those bodies of Christians who were called Independents, Presbyterians and Brown- ists or Congregationalists. The Puritans looked with equal contempt upon the Cavaliers, whom they regarded as an abandoned set of profli- gates, as many of them in truth were. The Puritans accepted the Bible only as their guide, and established church law and discipline according to the light which they received from its sacred pages. In dress and manners as well as in church decoration they aimed to be the opposite of the Church of Rome and the Church of England. Reform was their watchword, and everything was reformed but the heart of man, which leaves in the history of each century traces of its original father Adam.
There are many who are too much inclined to cavil at the idea that the Pilgrim Fathers and the Puritans sought the shores of New England purely to escape the religious persecutions of the mother country. That there were many adventurers who joined them from time to time, who were often a source of great discomfort as well as detriment in keeping peace at home and with the Indians, is a well-established historical fact. But no one can deny that those of Robinson's congregation, who set- tled at Plymouth, the Rev. Mr. John Wareham and his congregation, of whom the historian, Trumbull, says, " this was an honorable body." and the congregation of the famous preacher. Thomas Hooker, fled to New England purely and solely that they might escape from the perse-
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cutions of the intolerant religious spirit inflicted upon them in England. From these three congregations the earliest settlers of Fairfield separated. Some of them were among that memorable company of about one hun- dred, men, women and children, who left Cambridge with the Rev. Mr. Hooker and his assistant, Mr. Stone, and who made their way through the trackless wilderness to Wethersfield, Windsor and Hartford with no guide but their compass, no covering but the canopy of heaven and the overshadowing forest, " nor any lodgings but those which simple nature afforded them."
To vigorously maintain their ecclesiastical views the Pilgrim Fathers and those of the Massachusetts Bay Colony were influenced at an early date to make the Congregational Church the established church of those settlements. Connecticut followed their example. Therefore, the foot- hold gained by the Church of England at Stratford and Fairfield at this period caused great excitement.
1721. The General Assembly met at Hartford May IIth, when the Hon. Nathan Gold was elected Deputy Governor and Chief Judge of the Superior Court, Judge Peter Burr an Assistant, and Major John Burr and Captain Joseph Wakeman representatives from Fairfield. Judge Peter Burr was made one of the treasury auditors and Judge of the Fair- field County Court, and Mr. Richard Osborn Justice of the Peace for the county.
It was thought advisable at this time to make more stringent laws in regard to the observance of the Sabbath, and also to rigorously main- tain the worship of the Congregational Church of the colony, as well as to prevent the Church of England or any denomination from gaining a foothold among them. There was a growing tendency, however, towards favoring these services. Therefore the General Assembly proceeded to pass the following laws :
" Be it enacted by the Governor, Council & Representatives, in General Court assem- bled, & by the authority of the same, That whatsoever person shall not duly attend to the public worship of God on the Lord's day in some congregation by law allowed. unless hindered by sickness or otherwise necessarily detained, & to be therefore convicted before an assistant or Justice of the Peace. either by confession or sufficient witnesses, or being presented to such authority for such neglect, shall not be able to prove to the satisfaction of the said authority that he or she has attended the said worship, shall incur the penalty of five shillings money for every such offence.
" Be it also further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That whatsoever person shall go from his or her place of abode on the Lord's Day, unless to or from the public worship of God, attended or to be attended upon by such person in some place by law allowed for
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that end, or unless it be on some other work necessary then to be done, & be therefore convicted as aforesaid, shall incur the penalty of five shillings money for every sich offence.
" Be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That whatsoever persons shall on the Lord's day, under any pretence whatsoever, assemble themselves in any of the pubac meeting houses provided in any town, or parish or society, for the use of the mi ter & congregation of such town, parish or society, without the leave or allowance of such minister & congregation first had obtained, & be therefore convicted as aforesand, every such person or persons shall incur the penalty of twenty shillings, money, for every such offence.
" Be it also enacted by the authority aforesaid, That whatsoever persons shall be guilty of any rude & unlawful behavior on the Lord's day, either in word or action, by clamorous discourse, shouting, hallooing, screaming, running, riding, singing, dancing, jumping, winding horns, or the like, in any house or place so near to any public meeting house for divine worship, that those who meet there may be disturbed by such rude & profane behaviour, & being thereof convicted in like manner, shall incur the penalty of forty shillings, money, for every such offence.
" It is further enacted, That whatsoever person shall be present at any unlawful meet- ing, or be guilty of going from the place of his or her abode, & unlawful behaviour on the Lord's day, contrary to this act, & being therefore convicted & fined as aforesaid. & shall refuse & neglect to pay his or her fine, or tender to the assistant, or justice of the peace, before whom such person shall stand convicted, such security as the said authority shall judge sufficient for the payment of it, within the space of one week after such conviction, such assistant or Justice of the peace shall immediately cause such convicted person to be sent to the house of correction, there to lye at his or her own charge & be employed in labor, not exceeding a month for any one offence, & less as the offence is, at the discretion of the judge; the profit of such labor to be to the town treasury, except paying the charge of prosecuting the delinquents; & the sheriff of the county to see that said delinquent do so labor as aforesaid .*
At the meeting of the Assembly in New Haven, October 12th, Mr. Jonathan Sturges acted as representative in place of Major John Burr.
For further good government of the towns a law was passed :
* It appears that about this time there arose in the Colony a sect called Rogerenes, so named from one John Rogers of New London, who set out to be something more than a common man. With a party of men and women calling themselves Singing Quakers he went through the Colony singing and dancing, proclaiming "how their lips dropped with myrrh and honey." From the state records the following report is given of them. " It seemed to be their study and delight to violate the Sabbath, insult magistrates and ministers and to trample on all laws and authority human and divine. They would come on the Lord's Day into the most public assemblies nearly quite naked, and in time of public worship in a wild and tumultuous manner, crying out and charging the most venerable minister with lies and false doctrine. They would labor on the Lord's Day. drive earts by places of public worship, and from town to town, apparently on purpose to disturb Christians and Christian assemblies. They seemed to take pains to violate the laws in the presence of officers, that they might be complained of, and have an opportunity to insult the laws, the court and all civil authority." t
+ Trumbull's Hist. Conn., Vol. 2., P. 38. Col. Rec. Conn., 1717-1725, P. 166.
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"That each town at their annual meetings in December shall choose two or more Tything Men in each parish or society for divine worship within said town, who shall forthwith be sworn to a faithful discharge of the work hereby allotted to them, or if they neglect or refuse to take said oath, shall pay a fine of forty shillings to the treasury of said town, to be recovered in a manner as other fines."
It was also made a law :
" That each of the grand-jury-men & the said tithing-men & constables of each town shall carefully inspect the behaviour of all persons on the Sabbath or Lord's Day, especially between the meetings of divine worship on the said day, whether in the place of such public meeting or elsewhere, & due presentment make of any profanation of the worship of God on the Lord's-day, or on any day of public fast or thanksgiving; or breach of Sabbath which they or any of them shall see or discover any person to be guilty of. to the next assistant or justice of the peace : who is hereby impowered, upon such presentment to him made, to cause such offender to be brought before him, & upon due conviction of such offence, to impose a fine upon him to the treasury, not exceeding five shillings in money."
Each grand-juryman, tything-man or constable was allowed two shil- lings per diem, spent in prosecuting such offenders:
-- " to be paid for the person offending, or by the parents or master of such person; & upon neglect or refusal of payment thereof, or of other charge of such offenders or delinquents prosecution, such assistant or justice of the peace shall grant execution for the same against such person or his parent or master."
" Provided, That no person prosecuted on this act shall be charged with more than for one person prosecuting him for such offence."
" Provided, That all presentments for any of the aforementioned offences be one month after the commission thereof."
" That whensover any person shall be lawfully convicted of any offence against this act, or any other act provided for the punishing of any profanation of the Sabbath, or of any disturbance to any congregation allowed for the worshipping of God, during the time that they are assembling for, & attending on such worship, & shall, being fined for such offence, neglect or refuse to pay the said fine, or present some estate on which execution for said fine may be levyed, such court, or assistant, or justice of peace, before whom such conviction shall be had, are hereby impowered to sentence such offender to be publicly whipped with any number of stripes not exceeding twenty, respect being had to the nature & aggravation of such offence."
"Provided, & it is hereby provided & enacted, That if any children or servants, not of the age of discretion, shall be convicted of any of the offences mentioned in this act, they shall be punished therefore in such manner & way as is provided for their punishment when convicted of lying, & in no other way. And also, that no execution shall be served on any parent or master, by virtue of this act, for the fault of any child or servant, within one month next after such child or servant shall be convicted of such fault."
Ten shillings was the fine required for the first offence of lying, and if the offending party was not able to pay ten shillings, he was obliged to sit in the stocks, at the discretion of the Court or Magistrate, in some place not exceeding three hours. For the second offence a fine of twenty shillings was required, or the delinquent was to receive upon the naked body twenty stripes and no more; for the third offence forty shillings, and if unable to pay this sum, then not more than thirty stripes was to be inflicted upon the
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naked body. If the habit was generally continued in, the fine was increased ten shillings for each offence, or with five or six stripes more than formerly, the stripes not exceeding forty at any time .*
The Assembly at this time levied a tax of fourpence on every gallon of rum imported into the colony, and also passed a law: " That what shall be gained by the imposts on rum for two years next coming shall be applied for the building of a rector's house for Yale College."
The time of holding the Superior Courts in the county towns was changed. The last Tuesday of February and the last Tuesday in August was set apart for holding them annually.
It appears that the berries of Bayberry were used for making tallow candles, and, in consequence, for every peck gathered before they were fully grown and ripe a fine was imposed of 25. 6d. The roth of September was set for gathering them.
1722. At the meeting of the General Assembly at Hartford, May 10th, Justice Nathan Gold was re-elected Deputy Governor and Mr. Robert Silliman acted as representative in place of Captains Joseph Wakeman and Moses Dimon.
Captain Joseph Wakeman was made one of a committee to confer with Governor Shute of Massachusetts in regard to the Connecticut militia being called out to assist in suppressing the depredations of the eastern Indians. It was voted that the arms and artillery of the towns should be repaired and made ready for service. AAnd that colonels and lieutenant-colonels should be appointed over the county regiments. It was represented that such store of ammunition as the law required was wanting in the magazines. The majors of each town were requested to inspect the military stores and to take care that such as were needed be supplied.
Mr. Gershom Bulkley of Fairfield was confirmed cornet player and Mr. Thomas Hill quartermaster of the Fairfield cavalry troops. Fair- field was soon after supplied with one barrel of gunpowder for the public service.
The taxable estates of Fairfield were valued at £23.504 3s. 6d.
Mr. Timothy Green was ordered in November to print four thousand pounds of bills of credit.
Wednesday the 10th of April was ordered to be proclaimed a day of public fasting.
* Col. Rec. Conn., Vol. 1716-1725, p. 277.
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This year the Congregational Church of Christ at Fairfield was pre- sented with two silver cups to be used at the Communion. One of these cups was the gift of E. Wyncoop and the other of Jonathan Sturges, Esq.
Yale College had become at this time in every way a flourishing in- stitution with a resident rector, two tutors and about forty scholars. Contributions of books and money from private and public sources had enriched it, so that it was fast acquiring distinction. The Rev. Mr. Cutler was popular and beloved by the students. But to the great surprise and mortification of the trustees and the Congregational Church, he became a convert to the Church of England. In his convictions he was joined by Mr. Brown, one of the tutors, a Mr. Johnson of West Haven and a Mr. Whetmore of East Haven. It was also found that these gentlemen intended making a voyage to England to receive Episcopal orders.
Those persons who favored the Church of England in Fairfield were this year greatly cheered at the arrival from England of the Rev. George Pigot, who was sent to this country by the Society for the Propa- gation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. He took up his residence at Stratford, and for the most part divided his time between Stratford and Fairfield.
Dr. Laborie had already taken the first step towards forming a parish, and he was now particularly encouraged by the arrival of a settled clergy- man at Stratford.
The condition of the small bands of the Church of England people in these parts was reported by Mr. Pigot to the Secretary of the Society in England soon after his arrival in this country. His first report is dated August 20, 1722, in which he states that the President of Yale College, the Rev. Timothy Cutler, and five more belonging to the col- lege were " determined to declare themselves professors of the Church of England."
In a letter to the Secretary of the Society, dated October 3, 1722, Mr. Pigot wrote :
"I shall before Christmas, according to appointment, preach thrice in Fairfield, which is eight miles distant from my abode-as often at Ripton, at the same distance-in which places I have & shall take care to improve the festivals of our church to such purposes, & where these do not intervene, on other week days.
On the fourth of last month, at the desire of the President, I repaired to the Com- mencement of Yale College, in New Haven, where in the face of the whole country the aforesaid gentleman, & six others, hereafter named, declared themselves in this wise, that they could not longer keep out of the Communion of the Holy Catholic Church, & that
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some of them doubted of the validity, & the rest were persuaded of the invalidity of Pres- byterian ordination in opposition to Episcopal. The gentlemen fully persuaded thereof are the five following, viz .: Mr. Cutler, president of Yale College; Mr. Brown, tutor to the same ; Mr. Elliot, pastor of Killingworth; Mr. Johnson, pastor of West Haven, & Mr. Wetmore. The two gentlemen who seemed to doubt are Mr Hart, pastor of hat Guilford. & Mr. Whittlesy, pastor of Wallingford. These seven gave in their declaration in writing, & at the same time two more, & these pastors of great note gave their a sent, of whom the one, Mr. Bulkley of Colchester, declared Episcopacy to be jure divino, & the other, Mr. Whiting, of some remote town, gave his opinion for moderate Episcopacy.
Newtown, Ripton & Fairfield do intend to petition the Honorable Society for Church ministers. 1 now inform you Sir of what obstructions I met with in my numistry, & they are several, viz. : that of Lient. Governor Nathan Gold, who is a most inveterate skinderer of our Church, charging her with popery, apostacy, & atheism .-- who makes it hs businees to hinder the conversion of all whom he can, by threatening them with his authority-& who as a judge of the court here, disfranchises men merely for being Churchmen : also that of living under a charter government, in which there is not the least mention of ecclesiastical affairs : so that they have boldly usurped to themselves, & insultingly imposed on the necks of others, the power of taxing & disciplining all persons whatsoever, for the grandeur & support of their self-created ministers; also, that of lying slanders, continually against our Mother, as if she were a persecutress, & gaped for the tenth of the country's increase, & though these deceivers pretend a firm attachment to the illustrious house of Hanover, yet they are frequently oppugning the King's supremacy." *
In the same letter he asks for Common Prayer Books and Catechisms. From this letter it would appear that the prosperity of the Church of England was advancing, even under all the adverse circumstances against its gaining a foothold in the colony.
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