USA > Connecticut > The history of the Episcopal Church in Connecticut, Vol. I > Part 16
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and of an excellent temper and disposition; sound in his principles of religion, firmly attached to our most excellent Church, and bids fair for doing good service in the same, if life is spared and the Venerable Society show him favor." Nowhere in the provinces did the Missionaries more faithfully and conscientiously obey the "instructions" of the Society than in the Colony of Connecticut. Placed in the midst of a community where Puritanism, with all its prejudices, was deeply rooted, and knowing themselves to be constantly watched by their opponents, they prayerfully watched their own course; and besides presenting "in their whole conversation patterns of the Christian life," they "avoided all names of distinction," and "endeavored to preserve a Christian agreement and union one with another, as a body of brethren of one and the same Church, united under the Superior Episcopal order, and all engaged in the same great design of propa- gating the Gospel." The churchmen in Hebron made three unsuccessful attempts to secure a Missionary, and each time thought they were near the accom- plishment of their cherished object; but the candidates whom they assisted to go home for orders, all by a mysterious Providence, either died in England or were lost at sea on the returning voyage. At length the Rev. Samuel Peters, a native of the place, noto- rious afterwards for his eventful career as a clergy- man, and his extravagant and incredible statements as a historian, appeared among them, and in his re- port to the Secretary, dated April 13, 1761, he wrote: "The people belonging to the Church at Hebron seem religiously attentive to my instructions, and desire me, in their behalf, to say they return all thanks that
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hearts filled with gratitude are able, to you and to the honorable Society for your gracious notice in sending them their desire in a worthy Missionary; and, to enlarge their minds and fit them for a better world, a number of books also, which (by God's bless- ing) shall meet with their desired effect." As fast as the vacant missions were filled, other places, at this period, called loudly for the services of the Church of England. Occasionally a faithful Missionary was re- moved to a distant and more promising field of labor; and the veteran Gibbs at Simsbury was overtaken by indisposition and a melancholy which became so deeply fixed that for three years he was wholly inca- pable of exercising his clerical functions. He went to his rest with the cloud upon his mind which had hung over it so long; but Roger Viets, a native of the town, and a graduate of Yale College, supplied his place as a lay reader, and, chiefly under his influ- ence in this capacity, another small church was built in a remote part of the township. When he proceeded to England to receive Holy Orders, he carried with him the desire of the people, and the evidence of their provision, besides the recommendation of the Connec- ticut clergy. "I had thought," says Dr. Johnson, writing to the Secretary, December 1, 1762, "that Hartford and Simsbury might be joined in one mis- sion, but I find it will not do; for Mr. Viets would have his hands full in the care of three distinct dis- tricts; and besides the Church has so increased at Hart- ford, not by means of any parties or contentions, but by the still voice of reason and benevolence, that they are likely to have a flourishing church, consisting of a number of good families, many by accession. They
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have founded and are zealously carrying on a consider- ably large and decent church, and think they shall un- doubtedly raise £100 per annum, proclamation-money, for a minister. However, it being the metropolitical town of the province, they cannot well do without £50 sterling at least, if it could be obtained, in order to support him in a manner suitable to such a station. They are extremely desirous, and purpose, in a few months, earnestly to apply to the Society for Mr. Wins- low of Stratford to be their minister, who is indeed by much the most suitable person they could have; and his condition is such, having a large, expensive, and growing family, that he cannot tolerably subsist at Stratford, though they do their utmost for him."
The chain of parishes, running through the shore towns from Norwich to Greenwich, was now for the most part in a prosperous state. Mr. Graves, the Missionary at New London, in his communication to the Society in midsummer, 1761, exclaimed, with an ecstasy of delight: "Blessed be God, my parishioners increase so that I am amazed to think whence they come; several have lately been added, not only ex- ternally, but practically; they are doers as well as hearers, and those of the better sort to whom, I trust in God, others now under preparation will soon be joined. I think my catechumens last Sunday were above forty, growing, I hope, in love and favor with God and man."
The churchmen in Guilford, becoming almost wholly neglected by Mr. Punderson in consequence of the urgent demand for his services in other places, applied to the Society to be erected into an independent Mis- sion, including Killingworth and North Guilford; and VOL. I. 14
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Mr. Hubbard, "a hopeful youth, bred at New Haven College," and who for some time prosecuted his studies in Hebrew and Divinity under the direction of Dr. Johnson in New York, was selected to be their clergy- man, as he had been their reader, so soon as he should be permitted to go home for Holy Orders. When he went, in the autumn of 1763,-accompanied by Abra- ham Jarvis, in after-life his intimate friend and com- panion, -he bore with him a letter from his illustrious teacher to the Archbishop of Canterbury, containing these earnest and affectionate words: "What makes me, my Lord, the more solicitous in this case is, that Guilford is my own native town, where I have a brother (who is Mr. Hubbard's father-in-law), and sis- ters and sundry nephews, who are all very dear to me, under whose influence the Church for twenty years has been laboring to emerge, through many difficulties and discouragements. I lately made them a visit, and preached there. I found fifty families and as many communicants, and there are at least ten more within ten miles, and probably many others that would ap- pear, if they could be sure of a minister."
Mr. Winslow reported of his parish at Stratford, in July, 1762: "It is with pleasure I can yet say, in be- half of the people of my particular charge, that they are in general regular and well disposed, attached to the communion of the Church from solid principles, and from a proper sense of the happy tendency of the means therein afforded for all needful improvement in Christian knowledge and practice; that they are careful to preserve harmony among themselves, and peace and charity with their brethren of the other persuasions. The number of communicants now liv-
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ing is more than 150, and we have usually between 90 and 100 at the stated monthly celebration of that Holy Sacrament." Mr. Newton, besides having added another church to his charge in North Stratford, at a place now called Tashua, the erection of which has been already mentioned, found himself straitened for room in his parish church at Ripton, and his people, therefore, proceeded to construct galleries therein, to accommodate the increased congregations. At North Fairfield, (now Weston,) within the limits of the Mis- sion of Mr. Lamson, a church was built, and so far completed as to be ready for occupancy in the sum- mer of 1763. It was forty feet long, thirty wide, and
two stories high, with galleries. About the same
time another church, of larger dimensions, arose at Danbury, which was opened, on its partial completion, with services by the Rev. Mr. Dibblee, a native of that town, and supplied with occasional ministrations by Leaming, who seems to have been the pioneer, and by Beach, the unwearied Missionary at Newtown. Danbury was the seat of a heresy called Sandema- nianism, from Robert Sandeman, the name of its first propagator; and "our Church," said one of her clergy, referring to the direct influence of his erroneous teachings, "seems at present to be a sanctuary from infidelity on the one hand, and enthusiasm on the other."
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CHAPTER XVI.
MR. ST. GEORGE TALBOT; BITTER OPPOSITION TO THE CHURCH; DR. JOHNSON'S RETURN TO STRATFORD.
A. D. 1762-1763.
A CHARITABLE layman, Mr. St. George Talbot, residing in the Province of New York, had assisted the people in Danbury towards the erection of their church, and he was one of the gratified congregation who wit- nessed the opening services, and favored with his patronage the effort to plant the seeds of Episcopacy in a community of divided religious sentiments. He dedicated the energies of an active life and the re- sources of an ample fortune to strengthen its influ- ence in New York and Connecticut, and his liberal benefactions are associated with the early history of several important parishes in Fairfield County. In 1762 he made a tour of observation into a section of New York with the Rev. Mr. Dibblee, of whom he reported that he was "indefatigable in his endeavors to serve the interests of true religion and our holy Church, whose services I find universally acceptable, and his life agreeable to his public character." A year later he took a journey into Connecticut, and was present at the Convention in Ripton, a sketch of which he communicated to the Society in these words: "The Rev. Dr. Johnson, being requested to preach, delivered an excellent, pathetical, spirited sermon
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adapted to the occasion, and acceptable to the clergy and all who had the pleasure to hear him, pressing them to the utmost fidelity and diligence in doing the duties of their respective cures. Twelve Missionaries were present, who appear to be ornaments to their ecclesiastical profession, and very usefully employed, having had the opportunity to acquaint myself with the state of most of their respective Missions." He mentioned the attendance also of four or five promis- ing young gentlemen, candidates for Holy Orders.
The candidates throughout the colony did not in- crease as rapidly as the members of the Church of England. The flocks in different localities "were troubled because there was no shepherd." In vain did they plead for those ministrations which they had begun to cherish in their hearts, and with which alone their consciences could be satisfied. "The people of this parish," said the pure-minded Leaming, writing to the Secretary of the Society from Norwalk in the spring of 1761, "have completely finished their church, and purchased a good bell of 600 lbs. weight; they give constant attendance upon public worship, and appear to do it from a sense of duty, by their behavior in the house of God. I have told the So- ciety that I have taken care of Ridgefield, sixteen miles from this place; the number of heads of fami- lies there is eighty-seven, who entreat the Society to allow them a Mission of £20 per annum, and they will bind themselves to raise an addition sufficient to sup- port a Missionary, if the Society think proper to do so. I shall gladly relinquish the ministerial rates of that parish, which now belong to me, as it will advance the Church of Christ; I hope and beg it may be done.
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I am fully persuaded that the Society, if they knew the religious state of this government, would be of opinion that there is no part where Missionaries might do more good than here, for the division of those who do not join in our communion is very great. Some run wild with enthusiasm, while others, to avoid that extreme, run into another as bad or worse."
With a mind full almost to bursting of the great subject, he said, in a communication to the same gen- tleman two years afterwards: "All I now desire is, that those under my care may be Christians indeed; then there would be no fear of the future growth of the Church, notwithstanding the great opposition we meet with from the dissenters. I hope there will be means found out to support the Church in this gov- ernment; otherwise I fear there will be no religion here in the next generation. In order that it might be supported in the purity of it, there is much need of a Bishop to confirm, ordain, and govern. Every body wants a head, and when we have one, may we have a sound head and a religious heart."
As indicated in the above extract, there was at this period a bitter hostility to Episcopacy. "Never," said Winslow, "did a malignant spirit of opposition to the Church rage with greater vehemence than of late. The most indecent reflections upon the Venerable So- ciety and the General Constitution of the Church, and the most flagrant misrepresentations of the state of the Church in these colonies, and the most false and abusive personal invectives against the clergy, have lately appeared in print among us, and all this at a time when there has not been the least particular cause to provoke such a temper; on the contrary,
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wherever the Church has been planted, the conduct of its ministers and members has been so charitable as at least to give no just occasion of offence. No cause has, in truth, excited all this virulence, but that the Church has everywhere grown and increased, and the prospect is continually enlarging of its still further and substantial increase; and its condition is such in these colonies as that, since the glorious con- clusion of the war, and the happy establishment of peace, with such an accession of territory on this con- tinent, the dissenters are from hence jealous the Church may meet with some further encouragement, and, perhaps, enjoy those essential parts of her wor- ship and discipline which we have hitherto been desti- tute of; and they know not how to bear the thoughts of our having the same complete exercise of religion in our ways as they have in theirs. They may really thank themselves for no small part of the growth of the Church, at which they are now so enraged. Their continual disputes and endless dissensions have drawn sensible people and serious persons to take refuge in our glorious constitution. They know they cannot charge the Church professors or clergy with having made use of any of their own arts to withdraw their people, and that we have been wholly unconcerned, and in no instance intermeddled with their disputes and contentions. The increase the Church has re- ceived by means of these confusions has been by its obvious superior worth and excellence."
It was true, also, that a large part of the more se- rious and thinking Congregationalists detested the course of their ministers, and in some instances their injustice and gross misrepresentations had the effect
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to produce a more favorable impression of the claims of the Church, and really excited a curiosity to be informed of them, so that "the mischief designed by the heated leaders and instigators of the opposition to Episcopacy did but recoil upon their own heads, and lessen their influence even among their own sect."
From the death of his wife, in the summer of 1758, with whom he had been happily united for more than thirty-two years, Dr. Johnson began to look towards Stratford as the place where he might pass, in retire- ment, the evening of his days. He sighed for its fresh and healthful air. While he plied all the energies of his vigorous mind to give permanent shape to the plans of the College and to advance its prosperity, he yet so dreaded that contagious disorder, which reappeared from time to time in the city and drove him from its limits, that he longed to be released from his official cares and restored to his rural residence. During the periods of his forced absence, his thoughts were inces- santly upon the welfare of the Institution, and though he had every confidence in the ability and fidelity of his fellow-laborers, yet he knew that his own presence was needed to guide their movements and inspect the general operations. It was not his intention so soon to sever himself from the concerns of the College. He expected not to take this step until the new man, sent out by the Archbishop of Canterbury, had been well tried, and found worthy to be his successor. But with the pressure of declining age, there was suddenly added another weight to the heavy burden of domes- tic sorrow. Three years after the death of his first wife, he married the widow of his old friend and pa- rishioner in Stratford, William Beach, and the mother
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of his son's wife. With her he returned to New York, at the close of the summer vacation, and industriously renewed his efforts to promote the prosperity of the College. But, alas! at the expiration of eighteen months, that destroyer, the small-pox, which had al- ready deprived him of one son, reentered his house- hold and fell with fatal violence upon this beloved companion. Out of tender regard for his welfare, she urged him away from her sick-chamber, and com- mending her to God, he retired to the country-seat of a friend three miles distant, and awaited, with pain- ful anxiety, tidings of the result. When the intelli- gence of her death had reached him, he wrote to his son with exquisite tenderness: "The thing which I feared is come upon me! God's will is done! Your good mother died on Wednesday evening the 9th. . .. This event, my son, is indeed a most shocking disap- pointment to me, as we reckoned (perhaps too much) within three or four months of retiring together and spending the remainder of our days among our children and theirs with much tranquillity; but now, if I live, I must come alone." It was, indeed, the blow which made him powerless for any further oversight of the Institution. It broke him up at once, and forced him into immediate retirement. In his truly compassionable circumstances, "and with a heart torn by grief," he sent in his resignation to the Gov- ernors, and "hired an able hand with a sleigh" to bring him to Stratford, where he arrived February 25th, 1763, sixteen days after the death of his wife. Being now advanced in years, and resolved not to be drawn from this retirement, he took up his residence with his son, who "built him an elegant apartment"
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attached to his own mansion. Writing from Strat- ford to the Secretary of the Society, in May follow- ing, he said: "I shall, for the future, date from hence, as I am retired hither to reside here the little time that remains to me, being sixty-seven. Indeed, I thank God that I am in perfect health, only that the tremor in my hand increases much with my years; but the care and labor of the College grew very tedi- ous to me, and I was wearied of my manner of living in that populous town and public station, and wanted retirement." And then referring to the death of his wife, and its effect upon his resignation, he added: "This unhappy event makes me the more indifferent whether I take any public charge again. If, indeed, there were any mission to be had that could better the worthy Mr. Winslow's circumstances, I would will- ingly have taken this and no other; but as none ap- pears, I am content to live here, and will do what little good I can in a private capacity."
Very soon, however, the opportunity was offered of replacing him in duty at Stratford. Thus he exer- cised in the decline of life all the offices of Christian love and watchfulness for the same parish to which he first came in the freshness and buoyancy of his youth forty years before. Mr. Winslow had repeatedly ex- pressed a desire to be transferred to a field where his income might be adequate to his expenses. "I have no cause," said he, in a letter dated July, 1763, "for any uneasiness here, but for the insufficiency of my support, which would make it needful for me to embrace an opportunity of being nearer my friends, under some better circumstances, for the benefit of my family. As you are pleased, in so kind a manner, to ask me to be
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explicit on this head, I would acquaint you that, besides the Venerable Society's bounty, I receive £30 ster- ling per annum from this congregation, arising from an assessment on the ratable estates, made by virtue of a law of the colony, which obliges the professors of the Church to pay their proportion of this assessment to the minister under whose care they are. We are also provided here with a decent house, and two acres of land adjoining, and about as much more at a little distance; these articles make the whole advantage of this living, which, I believe, may at the extent be estimated at £100 sterling value. But this I find too unequal to the unavoidable charge of a family of ten children, and the expense of absolute necessities to support the reputation of the Church, and of my office, in a place of so much resort as this; though I endeavor at as thrifty a management of my income as possible; and, were it not for the dependence I have, and the assistance I receive from my friends in Bos- ton, I could not live without much difficulty, or with proper decency. It appeared probable I might be under some better advantages at Hartford, and I was in hopes from the general desires of the people there, joined to the opinion and advice of my brethren of the clergy and other friends, for my removal, that, if my life has hitherto in any degree been useful to the purposes of my office, I might not be less so there; and it would have brought me sixty miles nearer Boston. But I cheerfully resign myself to the con- duct of God's good providence, and fully rest in the Society's wisdom."
He was finally appointed to the vacant Mission at Braintree, Mass .; and in communicating to the Society
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his acceptance of it and the relinquishment of his sal- ary at Stratford, from Christmas 1763, he felt that it was an occasion of gratitude to God that he could leave the Mission with the general affection of the people, and return it to the Doctor in the like reputa- ble condition in which he had received it, with perhaps some increase of its strength. "As to Hartford," said Johnson, "the clergy think to take turns there once a month, that they may not be quite discouraged."
In the spring of 1760, the Rev. James Wetmore, one of that little band who nobly stood up for Epis- copacy in the Library of Yale College, and who had so long acted with the clergy of Connecticut, sharing in their joys and in their sorrows, died of the small- pox, at his Mission in Rye, "a worthy, learned, and faithful minister," greatly lamented. A division arose among the people about his successor. The legal constitution of the Parish was such that the minister must be called by the Vestry, and inducted into office by the Governor. After two unsuccessful attempts to obtain a Pastor, the Vestry, in 1762, extended an in- vitation to the Rev. Ebenezer Punderson of New Haven, which he accepted; and about the same time the Society, without any knowledge of this action, appointed the Rev. Mr. Palmer of Litchfield to fill the same post. Here was a conflict of appointments or
authorities. Both gentlemen had their claims; but Mr. Punderson was the choice of the Parish, and was desired by the people because he had been the means of uniting them, and thus of healing the unhappy spirit of discord which had prevailed since the death of their late Rector. It was an additional reason why Mr. Punderson should go to Rye, that the Church
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in New Haven was declining under his ministrations. Dr. Johnson, who had previously encouraged the ap- pointment of Mr. Palmer, wrote to the Society in De- cember, 1762, thus: "You have herewith a letter from the Church-wardens and Vestrymen of Rye, praying that Mr. Punderson may be appointed their Mission- ary, which also I earnestly desire, as they are (after much contention) happily united in him, and his re- moval from New Haven is rendered highly expedient by an unhappy controversy about a house with a dissenter of some note there, by whom he has been very injuriously treated, whereby his life has been most uncomfortable, and the Church has much suf- fered; but I hope it may soon be provided with some other worthy incumbent not liable to the like diffi- culties. The clergy thought it advisable, though he continues this winter at New Haven, that he should as frequently as might be visit the people at Rye."
The matter was at length adjusted, not without some chagrin and disappointment on the part of Mr. Palmer, by an exchange of places between the two gentlemen, and he was formally invited by the Church- wardens and others in New Haven to succeed Mr. Punderson; and the Venerable Society, rather than erect a new mission at Litchfield, allowed his trans- fer and continued their appropriation. In his report of June 8th, 1763, after mentioning that the people had purchased a glebe near the church, and were completing a house for his accommodation, he added, they have "engaged to give me an annuity of £30, which is as much as they are at present able to do, being in number but sixty families, and more than half of them in low circumstances; yet, after all,
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