USA > Connecticut > The history of the Episcopal Church in Connecticut, Vol. I > Part 25
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1 Sparks's Life of .Franklin, p. 486.
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eral Assembly of Connecticut, May, 1783, and printed by the order of that body, contains this grandiloquent passage: "O Peace, thou welcome guest, all hail! Thou heavenly visitant, calm the tumult of nations, wave thy balmy wing to perpetuity over this region of liberty! Let there be a tranquil period for the un- molested accomplishment of the Magnalia Dei,-the great events in God's moral government designed from eternal ages to be displayed in these ends of the earth."
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CHAPTER XXVI.
CONDITION OF THE CHURCH IN CONNECTICUT AT THE CLOSE OF THE WAR; MEETING OF THE CLERGY AT WOODBURY, AND DR. SEABURY PREVAILED UPON TO GO TO ENGLAND FOR CONSECRATION; WITHDRAWAL OF MISSIONARIES AND LOYALISTS TO THE BRITISH PROVINCES.
A. D. 1783-1784.
THE Revolution, which had been a "bridge of sighs" to the Church in Connecticut, was passed, but thick gloom overhung the immediate prospects of the Mis- sionaries. For the same sword which severed the col- onies from the British realm had cut the bond of de- pendence that united them to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, and they were thrown for their whole support upon the poor, thinned, and broken parishes. The charter of the Society limited the sup- port of Missions to plantations, colonies, and factories belonging to the kingdom of Great Britain, and the formal recognition of the United States as a sovereign and independent power forbade the continuance of the stipends to the clergy in this country. The lega- cies bequeathed in England to establish an American Episcopate were also lost, and it was yet a question whether the lands in different States, designed for the use of the Church, would inure to its benefit.
The clergy of Connecticut were thus left by the treaty of peace in great difficulty and embarrassment, and many of their impoverished people, who had
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firmly supported the cause of the Crown, were in doubt what course to pursue to retrieve their fortunes or provide for their families. Of the Missionaries who were faithfully serving their flocks at the beginning of the war, Peters, Graves, and Sayre, more indiscreet than others, had fled, -the first to England, the latter two within the lines of the British army; the unfor- tunate Leaming, after the burning of his church and property at Norwalk, had retired to New York, look- ing still in sorrowful hope towards the land of his nativity; and Kneeland and Beach had descended to the grave; but the rest, Andrews, Bostwick of Great Barrington, Clark, Dibblee, Fogg, Hubbard, Jarvis, Mansfield, Marshall, Newton, Nichols, Scovill, Tyler, and Viets, were still in connection with their parishes, and ten of them, rallying from all discouragement, met at Woodbury in the last week of March following the publication of peace, to deliberate upon the affairs of the Church, and organize for the future. Like the other colonies, Connecticut was under the jurisdic- tion of the Bishop of London up to this time; but no sooner had peace been declared and independence of the mother-country acknowledged, than she made the first movement. to secure what had hitherto been so ungraciously denied. The meeting was "kept a pro- found secret, even from their most intimate friends of the laity;" and it was so quietly held that no minutes of it were made and published. But the contempo- rary correspondence of Mr. Fogg of Brooklyn with a clergyman of Massachusetts gives the number pres- ent, and indicates the fear which was felt of reviving the former opposition to an American Episcopate, and thus of defeating their plan to complete the organi-
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zation of the Church, and provide for its inherent per- petuity in this country. They went into no such formal election of a Bishop as takes place in these days. The question with them appears not to have been so much a choice between candidates, as who will go upon this mission for a mitre, which was likely to be attended with more sacrifice than emolu- ment, more trial than honor. "Deeply impressed with anxious apprehension of what might be the fate of the Church in America," they deputed their Sec- retary (Mr. Jarvis) to proceed to New York and "consult such of the clergy there as they thought prudent on the subject, and to procure their concur- rence. He was also directed," says Seabury in a letter to the Venerable Society, written at a later date, "to try to prevail on Rev. Mr. Leaming or me to under- take a voyage to England, and endeavor to obtain Episcopal consecration for Connecticut. Mr. Leaming declined on account of his age and infirmities; and the clergy who were consulted by Mr. Jarvis gave it as their decided opinion that I ought, in duty to the Church, to comply with the request of the Connec- ticut clergy. Though I foresaw many and great dif- ficulties in the way, yet, as I hoped they might all be overcome, and as Mr. Jarvis had no instruction to make the proposal to any one besides, and was, with the other clergy, of opinion the design would drop if I declined it, I gave my consent."
Though born in the colony, and a graduate of Yale College, Seabury had exercised no part of his ministry in Connecticut. His father had been a Missionary of the Church of England at New London for ten years; but the son had found the fields of his labor in New Jer-
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sey, on Long Island, and in Westchester, N. Y., and, as already stated, for a brief time, during the Revolution- ary war, he was "in duress vile," in his native State, for active hostility to the measures of the Congressional government. Objections were made to him on this ac- count, and on the ground of his being a refugee; but they were all overruled, and he was the second choice of the clergy of Connecticut to become their apostolic head, and early in June, 1783, he set sail for England to seek the accomplishment of their wishes, bearing with him such credentials as could be most readily obtained.
Among these was the letter of the clergy to the Archbishop of York, -the see of Canterbury being va- cant,-written in their behalf by Abraham Jarvis, who dated it at New York, and signed himself "Minister of the Episcopal Church in Middletown, and Secre- tary of the Convention." After mentioning that "the establishment of an American Episcopate had long been an object of anxious concern to them and to many of their brethren in other parts of this conti- nent," they proceeded to recite: "The attainment of this object appears to have been hitherto obstructed by considerations of a political nature, which we con ceive were founded in groundless jealousies and mis- apprehensions that can no longer be supposed to ex- ist; and therefore, whatever may be the effect of independency on this country in other respects, we presume it will be allowed to open a door for renew- ing the application which we consider as not only sea- sonable, but more than ever necessary at this time; because, if it be now any longer neglected, there is reason to apprehend that a plan of a very extraor- dinary nature, lately formed and published in Phila-
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delphia, may be carried into execution. This plan is, in brief, to constitute a nominal Episcopate by the united suffrages of presbyters and laymen.1 The pe- culiar situation of the Episcopal churches in Amer- ica, and the necessity of adopting some speedy remedy for the want of a regular Episcopate, are offered, in the publication alluded to, as reasons fully sufficient to justify the scheme. Whatever influence this pro- ject may have on the minds of the ignorant or unprin- cipled part of the laity, or however it may, possibly, be countenanced by some of the clergy in other parts of the country, we think it our duty to reject such a spurious substitute for Episcopacy, and, as far as may be in our power, to prevent its taking effect.
"To lay the foundation, therefore, for a valid and regular Episcopate in America, we earnestly entreat your Grace, that, in your Archiepiscopal character, you will espouse the cause of our sinking Church, and at this important crisis afford her that relief on which her very existence depends, by consecrating a Bishop
1 The author of this plan was the Rev. William White, who disallowed the above interpretation, yet without retracting the leading sentiments of the pamphlet ; speaking of it some years later in his Memoirs of the Church thus : " Soon after the publication of the pamphlet, the author found himself in danger of being involved in a dispute with the clergy of Connecticut, in the name of whom, assembled in Convention, their Secretary, the Rev. Abraham Jarvis, addressed a letter complaining of the performance, al- though doubtless mistaking the object of it. The letter was answered, it is hoped, in a friendly manner, and there the matter ended. The same Convention, in an address sent by them to the Archbishop of York, al- luded to the pamphlet as evidence of a design entertained to set up an Episcopacy on the ground of presbyterial and lay authority. No per- sonal animosity became the result of this misapprehension ; and other events have manifested consent in all matters essential to ecclesiastical discipline." The pamphlet was published before the acknowledgment of independence. - Bishop White's Memoirs, p. 90.
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for Connecticut. The person whom we have pre- vailed upon to offer himself to your Grace for that purpose, is the Reverend Doctor Samuel Seabury,1 who has been the Society's worthy Missionary for many years. He was born and educated in Connecticut; he is personally known to us, and we believe him to be every way well qualified for the Episcopal office, and for the discharge of those duties peculiar to it in the present trying and dangerous times."
The letter of the Connecticut clergy was supported by the united testimonial of Leaming, Charles Inglis, Rector of Trinity Church, New York, Benjamin Moore, his Assistant Minister, and others. They added a separate communication to the Archbishop, enforcing the claims of the candidate, and expressing their earnest wishes for the success of his undertaking. "In humble confidence," said they, "that your Grace will consider the object of this application as a measure worthy of your zealous patronage, we beg leave to remind your Grace, that several legacies have been, at different times, bequeathed for the support of Bishops in America, and to express our hopes that some part of these legacies, or of the interest arising from them, may be appropriated to the maintenance of Doctor Seabury, in case he is consecrated and settles in America. We conceive that the separation of this country from the parent State can be no rea- sonable bar to such appropriation, nor invalidate the title of American Bishops, who derive their consecra- tion from the Church of England, to the benefit of those legacies. And, perhaps, this charitable assist-
1 The University of Oxford conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Divinity, December 15, 1777.
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ance is now more necessary than it would have been had not the empire been dismembered."
Dr. Seabury arrived in London on the 7th of July; and, leaving him there to contend with unexpected discouragements, to overcome, if possible, the ob- stacles which rose in his path and checked the ad- vancement of his purpose, let us return to examine the condition and prospects of the clergy and their parishes in Connecticut.
During the progress of the struggle it was not easy, perhaps, to distinguish between those conscientious and pure minded men who from religious principle adhered to the cause of the Crown, and that corrupt and base class whose loyalty consisted in fleeing from danger, in abusing their own country and the true patriots who were shaping its destiny. But if the termination of the war could not have been fol- lowed by an oblivion of its offences, the bitterness of the triumphant party ought at least to have abated, and acts of proscription and banishment should have been immediately repealed. "At the peace," says Sabine, "a majority of the Whigs of several of the States committed a great crime;" and he cites Mas- sachusetts, Virginia, and New York, as "adopting measures of inexcusable severity" towards the hum- bled and unhappy Loyalists. Instead of compen- sating them for their losses, as recommended in the final treaty, a disposition was evinced to make their condition uncomfortable, and to place them be- yond the pale of a generous sympathy. Sir Guy Carleton, before evacuating New York, wrote to the President of Congress that the Loyalists "conceived the safety of their lives to depend on his removing
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them;" and the British Government, by way of doing what it could not accomplish in the negotiations for peace, offered them inducements to withdraw and settle in their own provinces on the northern front- iers. By the end of the year 1783, so great had been the emigration to the British territory, that not less than thirty thousand persons from New York and the other colonies had arrived in Nova Scotia; and about one third of these, attracted by the beauty and security of the harbor, planted themselves at Shelburne, and soon exhausted their means in build- ing a town where nature opposed insuperable barriers to its prosperity. It was to most of them a pitiful reverse in life; and we are told that, "on their first arrival, lines of women could be seen sitting on the rocks of the shore and weeping at their altered con- dition."1
Among the thousands thus expatriated were some of the most intelligent and highly educated people on this continent,-clergymen, lawyers, physicians, merchants, artisans, agriculturists. The change to them from their old house-roofs to the rigors of a severer climate and the straits of new habitations was anything but favorable, and many a grave was dug for the disappointed exiles before the first winter had passed away. Their case had not been overlooked in Parliament, for Burke, Sheridan, Wilberforce, and others lifted up their voice in earnest and solemn con- demnation of that part of the treaty which delivered over the unfortunate Loyalists to the tender mercies of their enemies, "without the least notice taken of their civil and religious rights." One nobleman in the
1 Hawkins, p. 373.
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House of Lords (Lord Sackville) regarded their "aban- donment as a thing of so atrocious a kind, that, if it had not been already painted in all its horrid colors, he should have attempted the ungracious task, but never should have been able to describe the cruelty in language as strong and expressive as were his feelings."
Connecticut, to her praise be it said, did not share in the spirit of resentment and oppression that ap- peared elsewhere. She knew very well that the Loy- alists within her borders had suffered severely during the war at the hands of their friends; and if the Gen- eral Assembly neglected to obey the recommendation of Congress and restore their losses, it by no means followed them with the rod of persecution. But they were not in good repute with the public authorities, and scorn was likely to attend many of them for years to come. Fearful of this, and lured with the prospect of retrieving their broken fortunes under the Government to which they had given their sympa- thies, and for whose triumph they had secretly prayed, large numbers of churchmen, with their pastors, gath- ered up their personal effects and emigrated to Nova Scotia and the adjoining territory. A few of them afterwards returned and renewed here their interests and their business; but the rest remained, and with their descendants they have marked, to a certain degree, the regions where they settled with the thrift of New-England enterprise. The clergy who had been deprived of their stipends from the Society by the acknowledgment of American independence, were offered new Missions, with increased salaries, in the British Provinces, besides grants of land; and Viets VOL. I. 23
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of Simsbury, who had served his people so accepta- bly for nearly twenty-eight years, amid the violence of persecution and war, was one of the number to avail himself of this liberality. He delivered "a seri- ous Address and Farewell Charge to the members of the Church of England in Simsbury and the adjacent parts," before leaving, which was afterwards printed, and in which he stated: "From the year 1759 to the present time [1787], the number of conformists to the Church has increased from seventy-five to more than two hundred and eighty families, exclusive of the many that have emigrated and the few that have apostatized."
Andrews, beloved as a man and a minister in the scene of his nativity, turned his face, two years earlier, in that direction, and became the first Rector of St. Andrew's Church in the parish of St. Andrews, New Brunswick. Scovill,1 his neighbor at Waterbury, con- trary to the wishes and entreaties of some of his friends, dissolved his relations with his parish, and accepted inviting proposals to remove into the same province. And then Richard Samuel Clark joined his name to the list of Missionaries in the new field, and Nichols relinquished his charge and withdrew from the State. These removals of people and priests weak- ened the already feeble parishes in Connecticut, and
1 " In 1785, Mr. Scovill, against the advice of some of his friends, went to New Brunswick. He did not, however, at once remove his family. For three successive years he returned and officiated in the winter season in his old church." - Bronson's Hist. of Waterbury, p. 302.
The same remark will apply in a measure to others. The Massachusetts Gazette of October 24th, 1786, notes the arrival of a vessel at New Haven from St. John's, New Brunswick, with nearly thirty passengers, "among whom were the Rev. Messrs. Scovill, Andrews, and Clark."
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it required all the zeal and firmness of those who were left behind to keep alive the headless Church, until, under better auspices, its order and Liturgy might be revised and adapted to the new form of civil govern- ment. Hubbard and Jarvis, two friends whose inti- macy had been cemented by the same voyage to Eng- land for Holy Orders; Leaming and Dibblee, Mansfield and Marshall, Newton, Fogg, and Tyler, with some true-hearted and far-seeing laymen, strengthened the things that remained, and besought the flocks not to scatter or become despondent. They encouraged them with the hope of returning prosperity; and being all men of irreproachable character in private life, their influence was felt and their admonitions heeded. Seabury wrote from London in May, 1784: "There is one piece of intelligence that we have heard from Nova Scotia that gives me some uneasiness, namely, that Messrs. Andrews, Hubbard, and Scovill are ex- pected in Nova Scotia this summer, with a large por- tion of their congregations. This intelligence oper- ates against me; for if these gentlemen cannot, or if they and their congregations do not choose to stay in Connecticut, why should a Bishop go there? I answer: One reason of their going is the hope of en- joying their religion fully, which they cannot do in Connecticut without a Bishop."
The emigration to the Provinces was checked; and though the Loyalists applied to Parliament for relief, and the King, in his speech from the throne, recom- mended attention to their claims, and pensions and bounties in land were subsequently allowed to chap- lains, officers, and soldiers who had steadily adhered to the Crown, yet the fate of many who withdrew was worse than if they had lingered behind and shared,
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the fortunes of their friends in the States. Of the clergy who were scattered by the political storms of that period, none suffered greater pecuniary loss than the Rev. Dr. Inglis of New York; and because his name has frequently appeared in the course of our researches, and was closely linked with the Church in Connecti- cut, it is proper, before closing this chapter, to recur to him again, and trace a page of his later history. Not only was his private estate, large through his wife, confiscated, but he was compelled also to aban- don his Rectory; and in this misfortune he applied to the Venerable Society for permission to accompany some Loyalists of his congregation to Annapolis, Nova Scotia. His learning, his accomplishments, and his piety shone there conspicuously among the other Missionaries, as they had shone in the scene of his former labors; so that, to use the words of Dr. Butler, the Bishop of Oxford, in his Anniversary Sermon before the Society in 1784, "An infant church is rising, under the favor and protection of Government, in Nova Scotia; and it is of a singular description, consisting of honorable exiles, under the pastoral care of fellow-sufferers." When it was wisely determined to erect this and the neighboring British Colonies into a See, the person fixed upon to fill it was Dr. Chandler,1 that resolute champion for an American
1 The clergy of New York, in their letter to the Archbishop, commend- ing to his regard the object of Dr. Seabury's visit, added : " We take this opportunity to inform your Grace, that we have consulted his Excellency, Sir Guy Carleton, on the subject of procuring the appointment of a Bishop for the Province of Nova Scotia, on which he has expressed to us his en- tire approbation, and has written to administration, warmly recommend- ing the measure. We took the liberty, at the same time, of mentioning our worthy brother, the Rev. Doctor Thomas B. Chandler, to His Excel- lency, as a person every way qualified to discharge the duties of the Episco- pal office in that Province with dignity and honor. And we hope for Your
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Episcopate, who had used his pen with such distin- guished ability; but a fatal malady occasioned him many sufferings, and he was compelled to decline an elevation which he had so well merited. Being per- mitted to suggest a suitable candidate, he gave the name of Rev. Charles Inglis, D. D .; and that gentle- man was consecrated Bishop of Nova Scotia on the 12th of August, 1787, and the legacies left in Eng- land to establish an American Episcopate first inured to his benefit. The mitre which he wore for nearly thirty years subsequently fell upon his son; and the Church under their jurisdiction, planted in such a strange way, the Lord "has made strong for himself."
It is impossible not to feel a respect for the men who endured so many privations and bore so many frowns, that they might be consistent with themselves and save the communion which they venerated and loved.
"The character of those worthies," is the testimony of the Bishop of Oxford, from whose sermon we have just quoted, "will entitle them to a lasting memorial in some future impartial history of the late events in that country. Their firm perseverance in their duty, amidst temptations, menaces, and in some cases cru- elty, would have distinguished them as meritorious men in better times. In the present age, when per- secution has tried the constancy of very few suffer- ers for conscience here, so many in one cause argue a larger portion of disinterested virtue still existing somewhere among mankind than a severe observer of the world might be disposed to admit."
Grace's approbation of what we have done in that matter, and for the con- currence of your influence with Sir Guy Carleton's recommendation in promoting the design."
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CHAPTER XXVII.
ARRIVAL OF SEABURY IN LONDON, AND IMPEDIMENTS 1 ) HIS CONSECRATION. CONSECRATED IN SCOTLAND. RETTEN TO CONNECTICUT, AND PRIMARY CONVENTION AT MIDDLETOWN.
A. D. 1784-1785.
ON arriving at London and presenting his testi- monials, Dr. Seabury found political or state imped- iments in the way of his consecration. The Arch- bishops, both of Canterbury and York, appeared to be sensible of the merits of his application, and con- vinced of the necessity of transmitting the Episcopate to the United States, if it was intended to preserve here the Church in its integrity. But they foresaw great difficulties, and were much embarrassed by various considerations : among them, that it would be sending a Bishop to Connecticut, which they had no right to do without the consent of the State; that the Bishop would not be received in Connecti- cut; that there would be no adequate provision for him; and, finally, that the oaths in the Ordination Office, imposed by Act of Parliament, could not be omitted by the simple dispensation of the King.
So much importance did Dr. Seabury attach to the first of these considerations, and so anxious was he to see the Episcopate introduced into this country, that he immediately wrote to his friends in Connecticut, and suggested that they should apply to the proper
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