USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > Waterbury > The history of Waterbury, Connecticut; the original township embracing present Watertown and Plymouth, and parts of Oxford, Wolcott, Middlebury, Prospect and Naugatuck. With an appendix of biography, genealogy and statistics > Part 23
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made choise of the pew next the pulpit att the East end of the pulpit for my family to sit in."
It was then voted that " the men should sit in the west end and the women in the east end of the new meeting house," and that "but one head should be counted in a man's list." So much being done, the meeting adjourned for further delib- eration, perhaps. The next day, July 1st, after deciding " that age should be considered" in the business of seating, " Good- man Andruss and his wife, Lient. Hopkins and his wife, Goodman Barnes, Serg. Upson, Sent. and the Widdow porter were voted into the first pew att the west end of the pulpit." Andruss, Hopkins, Barnes and Upson were, at the time, at an advanced age, and were the oldest proprietors and earliest settlers then living in the town. They were the surviving fathers of the plantation. Hence the propriety of their occu- pying this high position in the new house-a place next in dignity to the minister's. "Widdow porter" was the widow of Daniel Porter, lately deceased, one of the original thirty. To Dr. Warner, now somewhat advanced in life, was assigned the second seat from the pulpit, on the men's side.
Having thus made a suitable provision for dignity and age, it was in order to look after the people at large. Having con- cluded " that all the males of sixteen years and upward should be seated," a committee was appointed, consisting of Dea. Thomas Clark, Samuel Hickox and Stephen Kelsey, to deter- mine the rank of the pews and to place the inhabitants in them, according to rule. The rule of individual rank was founded on age and list, as on former occasions, one year in age to be the equivalent of forty shillings in the list. In making out lists, the committee were directed to take the three last, " on which the three rates were granted for the building of the meeting house."
No further movement appears to have been made towards finishing the house till Dec. 1730. It was then voted " to go on to finish the meeting house galleries within six months." A year afterwards, "a rate of two pence on the pound was granted towards defraying the charge of finishing the meeting house, and also for the town charge of the year past."
This house continued the place of worship for the whole
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town till 1738, and for the first society till 1795, when a new house was erected. Repairs were made from time to time. In 1752, the town " voted to repair the meeting house by hav- ing windows in front of twenty-four squares of seven by nine, or nine by ten, with window frames." The old windows were to be used for the ends and back side. In 1769, " those who are seated in the seats " had permission, "at their own ex- pense, to turn them into pews." In the same year, I find on record evidence of growing relaxation on questions of morality and propriety. In December, the town voted, for reasons not given, " that men and their wives may be seated together in the pews !"
It was not customary " in olden time " to have a chimney or fire in the meeting house. It was cold sitting, in a winter's day, through a long sermon, but the people were tough. Those who lived at too great a distance to return home till the day's service was over, would resort, in the intermission, to the nearer neighbors. As society advanced, however, "the sabbath day house," so called, was built. There the more distant inhabitants repaired, the morning service over, to thaw their frosty limbs before a rousing fire. There they ate the dinner and drank the cider which they had brought from home. The first notice of sabbath day houses in Waterbury is in 1743. In December of that year, " upon motion by some persons for liberty to set up saboth day houses in the highway, the town appointed a committee to hear the request and appoint what place they shall build on." Nothing, however, appears to have been done at this time, and in December, 1751, "the town gave liberty to such farmers as have a mind to build sabbath day houses of seting them in the highway against san- day hollow, on the north side, above Thomas Bronson's." They were allowed ground twelve or sixteen feet in width, and twenty rods long, which appears to have been improved."
* The subject of burying yards may require a few remarks. The old yard on Grand street is not mentioned in the early records of Waterbury now in existence, except incidentally. It dates doubtless from the beginning of the settlement. There the dust of our fathers was laid, though no monuments identify the earlier graves. In the old ground (the northwest portion of the pre- sent yard) were deposited all the dead of the town till 1709.
" Aprill 11 1709 the seelect men of waterbury with the presens and consentt of samll hickox Layed outt and sequestered half an acur of land of said hickox one the southerd end of a hill at judds medow cald the pin[e] hill one the est side the riuer between thomas judd jur his land for a
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HISTORY OF WATERBURY.
The State's committee and the proprietors of the town, from time to time, as has already been stated, made the most liberal provision for the support of religion. Notwithstanding this, it was found, after Mr. Southmayd's settlement in 1705, that there was no adequate fund remaining. One £150 propriety reserved in the beginning, had been bestowed on Mr. Peek. A like pro- priety had been given to Mr. Southmayd. The mistake had been made of giving to the minister, instead of for the use of the minister. Only a few aeres of land had been granted specifi- cally for this last object-a house lot of two acres, three acres in the little pasture, and fifteen acres on Steel's Brook. Under these circumstances, and to provide for the permanent maintenance of the ministry, the proprietors passed this vote :
Dec. 13, 1715. It was agreed_by vote that in the division now to be laid out there shall be a division of one hundred and fifty pound propriety laid out with it to be disposed of by the town for the encouragement of the Gospel in the town of Waterbury.
This right was not entitled to the bachelor accommoda- tions ; and yet the divisions which, at different times, have been made on it, have amounted to many hundred aeres, the income of which, had the land been well selected, would have supported several ministers. But the benevolent intentions of our ancestors were defeated. The lands designed to have been kept sacred for the maintenance of religious institutions have, with a single small exception, disappeared, as have the moneys derived from their sale. Soon after Westbury and Northbury were set off as distinct societies, dissensions began to prevail ; the people grew careless of their permanent interests ; and the
burying plas for that part of sad town or any other as shall se cas to mak use of it for sad use thaer one sad day the wife of danell warner was buryd: layd out by us with consent of the naburhood.
THOMAS JUDD SNR ( select men." STRUEN UPSON
This ground is on the hill on the east side of the present New Haven road, a little above the bridge in Naugatuck. When the writer was a boy, the earth often gave way on the precipitous western bank, carrying the exposed bones far down the hill towards the road.
In December, 1734, a committee was appointed " to purchase at town cost half an acre of land out eastward near Joseph Atkins for a burying yard." This was on the Farmington road, and is, I suppose, the yard now used in East Farms district.
In 1736, March 2d, the town bought for fifty shillings, of Elnathan Taylor, "one acre and fifty two rods up the river [' at Northend,' or Northbury] on a plain by his house, or a little northward of it, and north of Twitch Grass Brook, a triangle piece, bounded east on highway,. west on Joseph Gillet's land, south on common land "-" for a Burying Place to be sequestered and set apart for that use "-" to bury their dead in as they have occasion."
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town, in town meeting, decided, Jan. 7, 1739-40, " after a long discussion and much opposition," to sell the ministerial estate growing out of the grant of 1715, (as it had authority to do,) " taking mortgages for the principal and bonds for the inter- est." It was designed to distribute the avails among the differ- ent societies. A portion of the land was sold by a special committee (of the town)-Samuel Hickox, Timothy Hopkins and John Bronson-as early as Jan. 24, 1739-40. Other pieces were disposed of soon after, the purchaser giving " se- curity for principal and interest yearly at some set time, either by surety or land." Mr. Southmayd, the town treasurer, was chosen to have the custody of the notes and bonds taken in payment, "and to deliver the same to the several societies' committees when orderly called for," and said committees were authorized "to sue out the notes and bonds of particular persons, if there be occasion." The special committee was also directed "to make sale of the remainder of the [ministry] land, if under circumstances that it may be sold." At the next meeting, held March 30th, 1741, it was agreed that "the ministry land sequestered by the grand committee might be sold and the use of the money be to the use of the ministry in Waterbury." This land, consisting of the three pieces al- ready referred to, the town, it is believed, had no control over. It could not be sold by the terms of the grant. It was to "remain for the use, occupation and improvement of the ministry of the town forever, without any alteration or disposal, [or other] use or improvement whatsoever." Nothing, however, now remains, with the exception of the "little pas- ture," (the parsonage lot of the First Congregational Society ;) and how this happens to have been preserved is a marvel. In December, 1756, after it had been set at liberty by Mr. Southmayd's death, the proprietors voted that it should " be for the use of the several schools in the town of Waterbury, to be disposed of as the other school lands heretofore hath been." Next the town concluded to try its hand. In December, 1757, it "voted that ye seleet men shall rent it [the little pas- ture] out for ye insuing year and put ye money into ye town treasury." But neither the proprietors nor the town could properly have any voice in the matter. Much less could they
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divert it from its original purpose. The land was given by the colonial government by its committee, and the grant, along with others made "for public and pious uses," had been ratified and made perpetual by the action of the General Court.
Again, in 1841, when the funds with which the society was to pay for the fourth new meeting house were not fortheon- ing, the committee who had charge of the business proposed to sell the parsonage lot. Bennet Bronson objected to this, and stated that the property could not be sold by the terms of the gift. He, however, saw no objection to leasing the land for a series of years, by which an amount approaching its cash value might be secured for the treasury, and offered himself to take a lease for twenty years, paying for the same three hundred and forty-four dollars. The proposition was accepted. When the lease had run about eight years, Mr. Bronson died, when, by direction of his will, the little pasture returned to the society, worth, from good husbandry, and the rise of lands in the neigh- borhood, many fold what it was when it went into his posses- sion. May it remain for the use originally designed, "with- out any alteration or disposal," forever."
The friends of the Church of England attempted, at an early period, to obtain their proportion of the ministerial lands, or of the moneys arising from their sale. The town, however, took upon itself the business of distributing these funds, and the Episcopalians appear to have been out-voted in town meeting. In December, 1763, the town appointed Thomas Matthews, John Welton, Samnel Hickox, Jr., Abraham Hickox and David Warner, a "committee to examine the records con- sarning the ministerial lands and moneys, and make report to an adjourned meeting ;" but at the next meeting, in February, a proposition to hear the report was " answered in the nega- tive." But in 1770, the strength of the new sect was much augmented. They had become numerous in Northbury, West- bury and in all parts of the town. In this year, by uniting them-
* Since the above was written, the land in question, all but a fraction, has been seized and ap- propriated, under its charter, by the Hartford, Providence and Fishkill Railroad Co. For about three quarters of it the company paid the society six thousand dollars. The money thus ob- tained has been invested in a house and lot on Leavenworth street, for a parsonage, now im- proved by the pastor, Rev. Mr. Woodworth.
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selves with the friends of an equal distribution of all the school moneys to all the societies of the town, they were able to com- mand a majority of the votes. A sort of " omnibus bill" was framed, which was passed March 12th, 1770. It embraced the two objects to which reference has been made. That part of it which relates more particularly to the ministerial funds is as follows :
And whereas, likewise, there are certain moneys in the abovesaid town appro- priated to the support of the gospel arising from the sale of lands given by the proprietors, at their meeting Dec. 15, 1715, to be disposed of by the town for the purpose above sd, and the church of England claiming their equal proportion of the same, the town, at their present meeting, taking into consideration the above sd claims with respect to the ministerial and school money, agree by vote that the above sd moneys be forever hereafter divided according to the above sd claims, and that the societies and parts of societies that shall hereafter be made shall be entitled to a like privilege.
Against this entire vote, the committees (school and eccle- siastical) of the first society protested. The school committee's protest will be found in another place. That of the society's committee runs in this wise :
Whereas the town of Waterbury formerly (when consisting of but one ecclesias- tieal society) was possessed of certain large quantities of lands devoted to the use of the ministry in the same. And whereas, since the sd town has been divided into several ecclesiastical societies, the inhabitants of sd societies convened in a town meeting did formerly undertake by their votes to sell part of the sd lands, and to divide the interest of the moneys raised thereby to and amongst sd societies -- And now the said inhabitants have also voted that a certain party called the church of England, (which had no existence in sd town when sd lands was granted to the use of the ministry therein,) shall have their equal proportion of sd moneys, all which votes are an affringement on the property of the first society of sd Waterbury and contrary to the laws of this Colony-Therefore we the sub- seribers, society's committee in sd first society, do enter this our protest more es- pecially against the last of the above sd votes made this day, as it is also against law and equity and the most important rites and interest of this society and against the common sence and practice of mankind, and request the same may be recorded in the office of the town elerk in sd Waterbury. Dated March 12, 1770.
(Signed) Andrew Bronson, Joseph Hopkins, Ashbel Porter, Dan. Welton, Ezra Bronson, society's committee of the first society of Waterbury.
In the spring of the following year, (1771,) the first society, by its agents, Joseph Hopkins and Ezra Bronson, petitioned the Assembly for relief. They said that all the ministerial lands had been sold, except the little pasture, for £303, 14s. 6d. -that the interest had been divided among the several par-
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ishes till March, 1770, when a dissatisfied party of West- bury, long discontented because they had not a share of the moneys derived from the sale of the western lands, (with the aid of certain Church-of-England-men,) assembled and passed the obnoxious vote. In August past, (the memorial continued,) Capt. Samuel Hickox and Abraham Andrews, a commit- tee of Westbury, Jotham Curtis, a committee of Northbury, and Capt. Edward Scovill and Capt. Abraham Hickox of Waterbury, " for the professors of the Church of England," "met at the town elerk's office and carried off about three quar- ters of the whole interest of said ministerial money," &c.
The petition, which prayed that the money might be return- ed, or an order passed concerning the disposal of it, was denied.
But soon the Revolutionary war broke out. The Church-of- England-men sympathized with the mother country, and the vote which gave them a share of the ministerial money, was found in town meeting to be "a very jumbled, unin- telligible one, and as understood by some, illegal and un- just, and inconsistent with the design of the donors of said lands." The obnoxious vote, therefore, so far as it related to the Church of England, was " declared to be entirely vacated and of no effect." The other parts of the vote were to "stand."
There was, perhaps, some informality respecting the meet- ing which passed this repealing vote, or in its action in refer- enee to the same ; for at a meeting held March, 1780, the vote was again passed, and put upon record.
When it was proposed that Westbury and Northbury should be-set off as a distinet town, and the consent of Waterbury was asked, it was given on condition that the new town should re- linquish all claim to the ministerial and school moneys. The act of incorporation said nothing about these moneys, and the question was left to be adjusted by the parties interested. In Dec. 1786, the town of Waterbury appointed Capt. Gideon Hotehkiss, Joseph Hopkins, Esq. and Mr. Daniel Byington a committee to settle "these matters" with Watertown. In December, 1787, another committee was chosen, consisting of Joseph Hopkins, Esq., Capt. Isaac Bronson, Mr. Josiah Bronson, John Welton, Ezra Bronson and Samuel Lewis, Esquires, to meet a committee of Watertown to settle the " con-
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troversy," with full power "to relinquish such part of our claim to said property as they shall judge prudent,"or to agree to leave the question to referees, or arbitrators.
In April following, the committee reported that they could not agree, each party thinking right was on its side. In De- cember, 1788, a vote was taken and passed to choose a commit- tee "to negotiate the matter with Watertown," and to settle it in such manner as they might think prudent, provided they could obtain favorable terms, &c.
When Farmingbury came to apply for town privileges, in 1787 and subsequently, the people of the old town took the same position as they did in the case of Westbury and Northi- bury, and were met by the same opposition.
In October, 1792, pending an application to the General As- sembly for an act of incorporation, the town voted that if the society of Farmingbury would within eight days give the old town " a legal acquittance of all their right in the public min- isterial and school moneys and other property," &c., then the town would not appear against the memorial of Farmingbury.
CHAPTER XV.
SCHOOLS.
CONNECTICUT has been long distinguished for its common schools. The Code of Laws established by the General Court in 1650 recognized their importance.
It being one chiefe project of that old deluder Sathan [says this Code] to keepe men from a knowledge of the scriptures, as in former times keeping them in an un- knowne tongue, so in the latter times by perswading them from the use of Tongues, so that at least the true sence and meaning of the originall might bee clouded with false glosses of saint seeming deceiuers ; and that learning may not bee buried in the graue of or Forefathers, in Church and Common wealth, the Lord assisting our endeavors-It is there fore ordered by this Courte that euery Town- shipp [&c. ]-[Trumbull's Col. Records, Vol. I, p. 554.]
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The grand committee, when they reserved the three "great lots." doubtless had reference to the interests of education. I do not find, however, the school lot particularly mentioned in any of their proceedings. It would seem that the proprietors were allowed some discretion in the disposition of at least two of the lots in question. When Mr. Peck came to be settled, as an inducement, one of the £150 proprieties was divided, equally, I suppose, (in 1790,) between Jeremiah Peck, Jr., and " the school."* In doing this, the proprietors doubtless thought they were securing the " publie and pious " ends con- templated by the committee.
There is nothing to show when schools were first set up in Waterbury. A statute, however, required "that every Town having a less number of Householders than seventy shall Yearly from Year to Year be provided of a sufficient school- master, to teach Children and Youth to Write and Read for one half of the year," and " that each Town shall annually pay Forty Shillings for every Thousand Pounds in their respec- tive Country Lists, towards the Maintenance of the School Master in the Town," &e. The earliest town record, on the subject of schools, bears the date of 1698. Here it is :
Decembr: 19d 1698 ye town granted 30s with ye last yeirs rent of ye scooll land for ye incuragment of a scoll for four moneths or longer if it can be obtayned and deacen Thomas Judd Ensign Standly & John hopkins was chosen a committy to endeuiour to procure one to keep scool to teach in righting as well as reading
[The first volume of the record of town meetings commences with the date of the above entry, and with page 98th, the paging being continued, probably, from some former book. Whether any separate record of the proper business of town meetings was made previous to this time is not quite certain.]
The extracts below show what was done by the town, from year to year, on this subject :
December: 18d: 1699 ye town granted 30 shiling and ye seoal money for ye incuragment of a scoal for three moneths
John hopkins benjamin barns and stephen ubson was chosen a commity to hyre a scoal master for three moneths if they can
Decembr: 21: 1702: benjamin barns senor and Stephen ubson senr was chosen a committy to hyr a scoolmaster for to keep scoal for thre moneths
Att ye same meeting John Richards and john judd was chosen a committy to
* This appears, not from record, but from a petition to the General Assembly, April, 1771, signed by the society's committee, in reference to the ministerial moneys. In the earlier divisions of fence, the three reserved proprieties were entered as " great lots."
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hire a scoal dame for to keep scoal in ye sumer and for yt end to make use of what money shall be left y' is due to ye scool for ye scoll land after ye scool master is payd
[Dec. 5, 1704] serg. Isaac brunson and benjamin berns senr was chosen scool com ity to hire a scoolmaster to instruct in wrighting and reeding as long as they can and to haue what ye country a lows for yt end and to hire a scoal dame to teach scool in ye sumer and for yt scool to let ye scoll land at sum publick meeting to be improucd for ye sumer scool [&c.]
[Dec. 9, 1706] doctr porter and iohn Richards was chosen scool com-t to hire a scool master for three moneths and a scoal dame for ye sum-r as fare as ye scool money will go
[Dec. 8, 1707] stephen upson sen and john scouill and john Richason wer chosn comiti to se after the bulding a scool hous which the town by uoat pased to be bult and the sd hous is to be bult fourteen foot wide and sixtecen in length
Desember 28 1709 [the same persons] ware chosen a commity to cary on the work of bulding a scoull hous in said town
Fabry 20 1709-10 Thomas hickox was chosen a comity with dauid scott and Richard porter formerly chosen for this year for to hire a scool master to tech scoull and a dam if need be
October ye 18 1720 it was agreed by uote that thay would have a rate of twolue pound for the riging up the scoll hous and other charge in the town so far as it will go
Thare was chosan for comety to see that the scol hous be dun and repared dauid Scott ser thomas brunson and stephen hopkins
10 December 1723. It was Acted that the School Committe Shall yearly De- mand the Country money [the money required to be raised by the colony law ?] And the Money that the School Land was Let for and pay the School And yearly Give an Account at our great town Meeting of their Receivings and Disbursements and their account Shall be Recorded.
The School Committe for 1723 which was Thomas Hikcox and Thomas Broun- son laid yr accounts before the town that their Receivings were 6-9-0 and their Disbursements to the school 6-9-0 and that there was coming to the town 25 shillings in Doc. Worners hand and seven and six pence in Richard weltons hand for school land let to them.
These votes and memoranda of the town clerk prove the earnest endeavors of the early people of Waterbury, in a time of great embarrassment, to provide the means of an elementary education for the young. Though they appeared not to do as much, in every case, as the statute required, they doubtless did all that their circumstances permitted.
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