USA > Connecticut > The history of the Episcopal Church in Connecticut, Vol. I > Part 13
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Six months later, March 28th, 1749, Dr. Johnson, after communicating to the Honorable Society the great growth of Episcopacy in Guilford and Branford, where forty-seven families had conformed to the Church of England, went on to say: "I have already mentioned the desires of Middletown and Wallingford, where the Church has further increased since my last, and Mr. Camp has continued to read there with good success, and, I think, will be a worthy and useful per- son; and he and they are about addressing the Society for leave for him to go home for them next spring, and would be humbly thankful if leave would be given him to go by next fall, that he may embark early in the spring. They are near raising their church, and two more new churches are building, namely, at Nor- wich and Litchfield. The Church is very consider- ably increasing at New Haven, where the College is, and a considerable sum is already subscribed toward building a church, and it is not doubted but between VOL. I. 11
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that town and West Haven (a village within four miles, where there is already a neat little church) there will soon be forty or fifty families. My younger son has read all the last fall and winter, chiefly at West Ha- ven, and sometimes at Branford and Guilford, as well as Ripton; but as he lives at the College, the chief place of his usefulness is there and at West Haven."
The elder son of Dr. Johnson, so eminent in the future history of his country, as a diplomatist and statesman, occasionally performed the office of a lay reader; and the Church-wardens at Ripton, in thank- ing the Society for his scanty services, and soliciting the presence of an ordained minister, mentioned that they "were laughed at by the Dissenters for having a lawyer for their priest, which discouraged many of the people, so that they would not go to hear him." In spite of obstacles in the way of her advancement, it was a season of general prosperity for the Church throughout the colony. The mission of Dibblee at Stamford and Greenwich was gathering within it "the inhabitants of all sorts," and under his auspices a small chapel had been erected on one of its out- skirts (Horse Neck), to accommodate the increased number of churchmen. The cure of Beach, "like the house of David, was waxing stronger and stronger." Mansfield, at the close of the year 1749, reported that he had, in Derby and Waterbury alone, one hun- dred and forty-six communicants, notwithstanding his people had been sharers in the great oppressions aris- ing from the system of colonial taxation. At Sims- bury, it is true, the prospects of the Church were scarcely so encouraging; for the Missionary, Mr. Gibbs, and some of his parishioners, were drawn into conflict
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with the civil authorities, and both for a time had lodgings in the Hartford jail, because the costs of court and the demands of the tax-collector were not promptly met. In the eastern part of the colony, Punderson encountered like difficulties, and failed to recover by process of law what he claimed to be justly his due. The Missionary at New London, Matthew Graves, with the peculiar habits and prejudices of a foreigner, did not readily coalesce with his brethren in all their movements to protect and further the in- terests of the Church. In one of his letters to the Bishop of London he says: "All Europeans, especially ministers, meet with a very ungracious reception here; and certain I am that there is a plan already formed to extirpate us entirely; a plan which, in its embryo, I zealously opposed, and, by the help of God, hitherto have been enabled to defeat it; a plan which, I doubt not to affirm, would shake the foundation of these in- fant churches by casting us absolutely upon the mercy of the populace, and reduce us into a Presbyterian, servile dependence." When the members of the Church of England in Hebron exerted themselves to provide for the support and secure the ordination of their lay reader, Mr. Jonathan Colton, a classmate of Leaming and Chandler, and who was sustained by the recommendation of Dr. Johnson, Mr. Graves fol- lowed their earnest entreaty with a letter to the Ven- erable Society, in which he objected to his appoint- ment, and used this vituperative language: "I must add that 'tis my conscientious opinion Mr. Colton is quite unfit for Holy Orders, unless a covetous man, a farmer, an apothecary, a merchant, and a usurer is qualified for the ministry, for such and all these he
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surely is; but I solemnly declare there are more and more notorious reasons why such a man should never be ordained. All that I shall add about Hebron is, that inasmuch as they are very wicked, they have the greater necessity for a good resident minister."
The presence of one in the highest grade of the ministry would have tended to prevent or restrain such ill-natured interference, and the Bishop of Lon- don, writing to Dr. Johnson in the spring of 1752, says: "I think myself at present in a very bad situa- tion: Bishop of a vast country, without power or in- fluence, or any means of promoting true religion; se- questered from the people over whom I have the care, and 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.
"Your letter of the 20th of October last, sent by Messrs. Camp and Colton, came but lately to hand. I thank you for it, and particularly for giving me some light into the quarrel between Mr. Graves and Mr. Colton. Mr. Graves wrote to me a very bad character of him, but could not conceal his passion and resentment, charging him with very heinous crimes. His letter gave me great offence, as he will find when he receives my answer."
Mr. Colton was admitted to Holy Orders, but died on his returning voyage to this country in 1752, and was buried in the depths of the sea,-the second af- flictive disappointment which the church at Hebron experienced in its efforts to obtain a resident Mis- sionary. His companion, the Rev. Ichabod Camp, was appointed to Middletown, Wallingford and Cheshire.
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CHAPTER XII.
MEMORIALS OF CHURCHMEN IN CONNECTICUT TO THE GENERA ASSEMBLY; AND ORGANIZATION OF TRINITY PARISH, NEW HAVEN.
A. D. 1752-1753.
IT has been stated in a previous chapter that the enactment of the General Assembly, at its May Ses- sion in 1746, though aimed directly at the suppression of enthusiasm and the preservation of the standing order, struck a blow at the Church, and "excluded her members from voting in society meetings, and from having any share in levying those taxes which they were obliged to pay" for the common support of religion. This exclusion was manifestly so unjust, that the Wardens of the several societies, except that at New London, acting in behalf of all the members of the Church of England in Connecticut, memorial- ized the General Assembly, in 1749, to take into con- sideration their state, and pass an act granting to them full parish privileges, and power, within themselves, to meet and tax themselves, as they might think proper, for the support of their ministers or the "main- tenance of catechists or candidates for Holy Orders, according to the practice allowed and approved of by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel"; and to choose persons to collect their taxes, who should
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be governed and directed by the same laws as other collectors of society rates in the colony.
This memorial, like all the previous memorials of churchmen to the General Assembly of Connecticut, was drawn up by Dr. Johnson, but, "by reason of the violent opposition of the Rev. Mr. Graves, it was not brought to trial" at the May Session. The clergy met in the autumn, when he objected to the draught that had been made, and agreed with the rest, as they thought, to allow a new form, omitting any mention of cate- chists or candidates ; "but as the attorney (who was now the sole draughtsman) petitioned for taxing and collection powers," he appeared at the October Session and entered his protest against it, as what he called a "spurious address." He subsequently proposed to petition for a law in accordance with a memorial of his own, and gave his brethren notice that he should resist personally any application for a different law; and Dr. Johnson, in communicating the result to the Society, said: "Rather than have an open opposition before the Assembly, we thought it best to drop the whole affair, and still be at the mercy of the dissent- ers, as we were, though our case is very difficult."
In 1750 the labors of Mr. Punderson as an itiner- ant Missionary in Connecticut were extended, and the members of the Church of England at Middletown, North Guilford, Guilford, Wallingford, and other places, submitted themselves to his pastoral care; and what- ever ministerial taxes they had been assessed to pay, he ordered to be entirely applied toward building their churches and maintaining readers among them, with- out appropriating any part thereof to himself. On the 18th of October, in the same year, he sent a letter
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to the Secretary of the Society, which contains this summary of his ministrations in' one of his journeys: "The 5th of September rode to Middletown, and preached there the next day; the day following, at East Haddam; on Sunday, at Middletown, in their town-house, it being quite full; administered the two sacraments; their church is a beautiful timber build- ing, and will soon be fit to meet in; a folio Bible and Common Prayer Book would be very acceptable to them; the next day, in a small church in Wallingford; the day following gave private baptism to a poor, weak child, as I went to my native place, New Haven; the Sunday after the Commencement, preached in the State House in that town, to a numerous assembly, not- withstanding Brother Thompson preached the same day in the church at West Haven; the day following, at Branford; upon Tuesday, in the church at Guilford, to abundance; the next day, at Cohabit [North Guil- ford]; upon Friday, at Millington [a part of East Had- dam], added there two more to our communion; the next day christened three children. I travelled in this journey about one hundred and sixty miles ; preached eleven sermons; christened seventeen chil- dren; the Sunday before last was at Charlestown, and the last at Norwich; the Church greatly increases at both these places."
From this record it appears that there was "a small church in Wallingford," built many years before ap- plication was made to the town and granted, for lib- erty to erect an edifice nearer the centre, "on the west side of Mix's lane." In that application, the members of the Church of England speak of having "assembled together for divine worship near Pond
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Hill," and it was here that the parishioners of Wal- lingford and North Haven, after being united, in 1741, in one church, by the name of Union Church, erected the temporary edifice in which Punderson officiated.
More than twenty churches had been built in dif- ferent parts of the colony before a spade was taken to dig for the foundations of an Episcopal house of worship in New Haven, a town, then as now, leading all others in the number of its inhabitants. The Col- lege was constantly furnishing candidates for the min- istry, and from time to time there were indications that families in the place were leaning to the Church of England, and desirous of her services. Dr. John- son was here on a Sunday, May 6th, 1750; and it was an interesting feature of the services which he per- formed at that time, according to the entry in his parochial Register, that he baptized six male children, all the sons of Daniel and Mehetabel Trowbridge, i. e., Joseph, Newman, Thomas, Rutherford, Stephen, and John.
The first vigorous and decided movement to estab- lish the Church in New Haven was made by the Rev. Jonathan Arnold, the Society's itinerant Mis- sionary in the colony. While in England, whither he went for Holy Orders, he obtained from William Gregson - of the city of London, great-grandson of Thomas Gregson, one of the original settlers of this place, and through whom, as the only surviving male descendant, he claimed to be seized in fee-simple - a deed or "indenture," dated March 26, 1735, convey- ing to him one acre and three quarters of land or thereabouts, situate in the town and county of New Haven, and now known as the glebe property, on the
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corner of Church and Chapel streets. The deed was for the consideration of "five shillings lawful money in hand," and out of "piety towards God," and "zeal for the Protestant religion and the Church of England, as by law established," and the conveyance was to "Jonathan Arnold and his heirs in trust, nevertheless, for the building and erecting a church thereupon for the worship and service of Almighty God according to the practice of the Church of England, and a parson- age or dwelling-house for the incumbent of the said intended church for the time being; and also for a churchyard to be taken thereout for the burial of the poor, and the residue thereof to be esteemed and used as glebe land by the minister of said intended church
for the time being forever"; to be applied to these
"uses, interest, and purposes," and no other. The instrument was duly stamped, though it lacked the proper acknowledgment; and one of the witnesses to its execution was the Rev. Henry Caner, the Mission-
ary at Fairfield, then on a visit to London for the benefit of his health. Mr. Arnold returned to this country in 1736, and found other parties, as they had been for many years, in possession of the land. He appears to have made no legal effort to claim it until September 6, 1738, when a true copy of the original deed was recorded in the Land Records of New Haven. About the same time he attempted to take possession, but was "mobbed off by 150 people, after his servants had ploughed in the field for the best part of a day without molestation from the occupant or claimant." A statement of this resistance was sent home to the Honorable Society, signed by the six Episcopal clergy- men in Connecticut, and Mr. Wetmore of Rye, who,
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from nearness to this colony and sympathy with them, always cooperated as far as he might with Dr. John- son and his associates in their efforts to advance the prosperity of the Church. The testimony of such wit- nesses is reliable, and proves that there was some foundation in equity for the claim under the deed of William Gregson. Had the title held or been un- disputed, it will be seen that the gift was for the pur- pose of erecting and maintaining a church in New Haven, and upon that particular spot, and no other. Failing to accomplish his original intention of first erecting an edifice here, the Missionary started the project some time afterwards of building a church at West Haven, and no successful efforts were again made for New Haven until 1752. In a letter, dated April 8th, of that year, Dr. Johnson wrote to the Sec- retary of the Society thus: "The condition of the Church within the whole of this colony hath not much altered, save that it hath so far increased at New Haven (with West Haven at about four miles dis- tance), that they have this winter got timber to build a church of the dimensions of sixty feet by forty, be- sides the steeple and chancel; and as this is a place of very great importance on account of the College being there, it would be very happy for them if the Society were able to assist them in providing for a minister, as I doubt they will not be able to do more than £25 sterling per annum themselves, especially while building. The Church is also gaining at Guil- ford and Branford, which, being but twelve miles asunder, propose to join for the present in procuring a minister, to whom they would also engage about £25 per annum, and therefore stand in like need of
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assistance; and there are two worthy candidates likely to offer for these places, but if the Society be not able to assist them, they must perhaps be content for the present to have but one over them all."
There are no records to show the exact time of the formation of Trinity Parish; but as the movement to build a church was generally preceded by the paro- chial organization, or simultaneous with it, it is fair to presume that the common practice was not de- parted from in New Haven. Churchmen were de- barred from erecting an edifice upon the Gregson land, but they established themselves in sight of it, and as near as they well could; for on the 28th of July, 1752, Samuel Mix, for the consideration of £200 old tenor, executed a deed conveying to Enos Alling and Isaac Doolittle one certain piece of land, “in quantity twenty square rods," "at the southeast cor- ner of the Market place opposite to the corner known by the name of Gregson's Corner," "for the building of a house for public worship, agreeable and accord- ing to the establishment of the Church of England."
This deed, like that of William Gregson to Jonathan Arnold, was defective in the required acknowledg- ment; and the grantor dying soon after its execution, the General Assembly, at the October Session in 1756, upon the memorial of the grantees, gave them liberty to record it in the records of the town of New Haven, and thus completed and confirmed the title. Enos Alling and Isaac Doolittle were influential members and supporters of Trinity Parish, and though not de- scribed as such in this instrument, were afterwards for many years its chief officers, bringing them into the trials and conflicts of the War for American In-
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dependence. Mr. Doolittle, who was a native of Wal lingford, and came to reside in New Haven at a very early age, was more liberal than any of his contem- poraries in contributing for the erection of the church, and tradition has assigned to him the privilege of being the first man to strike his spade into the earth when the ground was broken for its erection. Mr. Alling was one of the twelve graduates of Yale Col- lege in 1746, and besides his zeal for Episcopacy in New Haven, he was a member of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, and deeply interested in all its operations. The church was built of wood, upon the land which these sagacious and Christian men had purchased; and when the frame of the edifice was raised, it is said that the heads of all the Episcopal families then in New Haven sat down upon the door- sill and spoke hesitatingly of their future growth. Eight years later, according to a statement of Presi- dent Stiles in his "Itinerary," they had only increased to the number of twenty-five families, comprising ninety-one souls. There is another agent to be men- tioned in the successful enterprise of establishing the Church in New Haven, the Rev. Ebenezer Punderson, already spoken of as an itinerant missionary in Con- necticut. It cannot precisely be determined when he removed with his family from Groton to this place; but, in a letter written not long before his death, lie al- ludes to the fact that he had been in the Society's ser- vice upwards of nine years, "at New Haven, Guilford, and Branford," which would bring him to his charge in this vicinity before the close of the year 1752. The proceedings of the Society for 1753 contain the following record, which throws light upon his influ-
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ence and generosity: "The Rev. Mr. Punderson, the Society's itinerant Missionary in Connecticut, having petitioned the Society to be settled Missionary, with only part of his present salary, (which is seventy pounds per annum,) to the members of the Church of England in New Haven, the place of his nativity, (where a new church is built, to which Mr. Punderson gave the greatest part of the timber,) and to those of the neighboring towns of Guilford and Branford, the Society have granted his request."
This brings the history forward to 1753, and within the last six years the list of Episcopal clergy in the col- ony has been increased by the addition of the names of Joseph Lamson, Ebenezer Dibblee, John Fowle, Richard Mansfield, and Ichabod Camp; and churches have been opened or built at Stamford, Stratfield (now Bridgeport), Guilford, Norwich, Litchfield, Mid- dletown, and New Haven. A second and larger church, to take the place of the first, was built at Redding in 1750. The pen of controversy in this same period has been again wielded, and Mr. Beach, the faithful Missionary at Redding and Newtown, has calmly and dispassionately vindicated the Church of England, and defended it against the uncharitable attacks of "Mr. Noah Hobart, pastor of a church of Christ in Fairfield." That Congregational divine published a first and second "address to the members of the Epis- copal separation in New England," as he was pleased to denominate churchmen; and wrote, according to his own acknowledgment, "under a full conviction that their separation was unjustifiable in itself, and in its effects very hurtful to the country, and to the cause of practical religion in it, and that it would, if
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it prevailed, prove pernicious to their posterity."1 He is by no means the first prophet of modern times whose predictions have failed of fulfilment. Moses Dickinson, another Congregational divine, ministering at Norwalk, wrote an appendix to the Second Ad- dress; and Mr. Wetmore, Dr. Caner, and Dr. Johnson, were all drawn into the controversy, and bore their part in correcting the misrepresentations and virulent aspersions of the adversaries of the Church. These ad- versaries in this particular effort, among other things, charged the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts with a departure from the true de- sign of their charter, and from their own professed in- tentions, because they did not confine themselves to sending and supporting Missionaries among those who were either in a state of absolute heathenism, or at least unprovided with any sort of Protestant min- istrations. But it was well said, in answer to this point, that the Society never sent Missionaries to convert Protestants to Episcopacy, but to minister to destitute members of the Church of England; and as to the argument about the heathen, Mr. Beach re- ferred to his own experience with the tribe of Indians near Newtown. He was early instructed to have a care for their spiritual welfare; and in attempting to carry out his instructions, he found his labor profit- less, for the Indians "refused to hear anything about religion from him; and to show how much they defied the thoughts of the Church of England, they called him Churchman, Churchman, out of contempt, which they had learned from the neighboring Dissenters."2
1 Noah Hobart's Second Address, p. 6.
2 Examination of Mr. Hobart's Second Address, p. 70
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This, like all the previous controversies, proved an in- direct means of furthering the progress of Episcopacy in Connecticut. Between ninety and one hundred communicants were reported in each of the churches at Newtown and Redding, and in that same year (1751), the year of the controversy, the Missionary concluded a letter to the Society with these touching words: "If I know my own heart, I desire above all things to promote the eternal good of souls; but all I can now do, is, to minister to these two congrega- tions, of which I hope the generality are very good and understanding Christians. And as they can give a very good reason why they adhere to the Church of England, so they adorn their profession by a good life. I continue to perform Divine service, and preach twice every Sunday and some other holy- days, although I labor under much bodily weakness and pain, and am in continual expectation of my de- parture out of this miserable life, which event will, I hope, be very welcome when it shall please God to order it."
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CHAPTER XIII.
EDUCATION, AND THE REMOVAL OF DR. JOHNSON TO NEW YORK, TO ACCEPT THE PRESIDENCY OF KING'S COLLEGE.
A. D. 1753-1756.
THE strength of Episcopacy in the Colony of Con- necticut was increased by the addition of each house of worship and each devoted clergyman. Resolutely bent on serving God in the way of their forefathers, the scattered churchmen in some of the larger towns grew bold under the repeated attacks of their adver- saries, and met them by renewed and greater exer- tions to procure for themselves the blessings and priv- ileges which they had so long desired. The foothold gained in New Haven, and the establishment of a Mis- sion in this place, from which to radiate as a centre, proved to be an important advance, and helped the interests of the Church in all the surrounding locali- ties. The attitude assumed at this period by the con- troversial writers among the Congregationalists was not of that gentle and benevolent kind which wins over opponents, or weakens the resolution to vindi- cate and sustain a favorite cause. The more these desperate divines urged "the awful guilt" of separa- tion from the standing order, and "deterred their hearers from such a dangerous communion" as the Church of England, the more they were troubled with questions which they could not readily answer, and
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