USA > Connecticut > The history of the Episcopal Church in Connecticut, from the settlement of the colony to the death of Bishop Seabury > Part 23
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CHAPTER XXIV.
CHE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE; TRIALS OF THE MISSION- ARIES IN CONNECTICUT; AND DEATH OF MR. BEACH.
A. D. 1776-1781.
ON the 4th of July, 1776, the Thirteen Colonies, through their Congress at Philadelphia, declared them- selves independent of Great Britain, -a step towards which their measures from the first had been inevi- tably and surely tending. Some patriots, more cau- tious than others, thought the movement was precip- itated. All connection with the mother-country was now solemnly dissolved, and the American people were released from any allegiance to the sovereignty of the King. The Declaration involved the clergy of the Church, especially the Northern clergy, in new troubles, and added greatly to their embarrassments. As faith- ful Missionaries of the Venerable Society, from which came their chief support, they honestly believed them- selves bound by their oaths of allegiance, taken at the time of their ordination, to pray for the Sovereign whose dominion the colonies had thrown off; and guided by the forms of the Liturgy, they could omit. no part in conducting public worship without doing violence to their own consciences. After indepen- dence was declared, stricter vigilance was employed in watching the course of the Tories in Connecticut ; and the persecutions and privations to which the clergy
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were exposed assumed other and harsher shapes. Mr Viets, suspected of having assisted the Royalists who were confined in the Simsbury mines to escape, was rudely torn from his people, carried a prisoner to the Hartford jail, and put in irons. Mr. Leaming of Nor- walk, quiet in his manners, and inoffensive, except that he wielded a vigorous pen and adhered unflinch- ingly to his loyal principles, was the victim of an out- rage even more atrocious than this. The Sons of Liberty, as the patriots termed themselves,-in the present instance a lawless mob,-entered the parson- age, took his picture from the wall, carried it forth, and added to other insults that of "defacing and nail- ing it to a sign-post with the head downward." Not satisfied with this indignity, they afterwards seized him and lodged him in jail as a Tory, where he was de- nied the usual comforts of a bed,-a species of per- sonal abuse which he could never forget, since it brought on a hip complaint that made him a cripple for life. In Connecticut, as in the Province of New York, some of the clergy were pulled out of their reading- desks, because they prayed for the King and Royal family; and others were thrown into prisons "for friv- olous suspicions of plots," and subsequently acquitted by the very Committees of Vigilance which were their persecutors.
"I could fill a volume with such instances," said the Rev. Mr. Inglis, in a letter to the Society, in the au- tumn of 1776, after describing the trials of the clergy, "and you may rely on the facts I have mentioned as indubitable, for I can name the persons, and have these particulars attested in the simplest manner. The persons concerned are all my acquaintances, and
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ot very distant; nor did they draw this treatment n themselves by any imprudence, but for adhering o their duty, which gave great offence to some emagogues, who raised mobs to persecute them on hat very account. Whatever reluctance or pain a be- levolent heart may feel in recounting such things, which are, indeed, a disgrace to humanity and relig- on, yet they ought to be held up to view, the more ffectually to expose the baneful nature of persecu ion, make it detestable, and put mankind on their guard against its first approaches. Were every in- tance of this kind faithfully collected, it is probable hat the sufferings of the American clergy would ap- bear, in many respects, not inferior to those of the English clergy in the great rebellion of the last cen- tury; and such a work would be no bad supplement co 'Walker's Sufferings of the Clergy.'"
Several of the Missionaries in Connecticut, who con- tinued to reside on their respective missions, were for- bidden to go beyond them, and others were placed for a time under heavy bonds, and not allowed to visit even a parishioner without special leave from the Selectmen of the town. This was the case with Mr. Andrews of. Wallingford; and Mr. Kneeland of Stratford, the successor and grandson by marriage of the Rev. Dr. Johnson, thus died a prisoner to the patriots in his own house, April 17th, 1777. Mr. Sayre of Fairfield was banished to New Britain for seven months, and then, upon his return, confined to the limits of his parish. Unable, by reason of the war, to communicate with the Society, the clergy were in- convenienced, if not distressed, for want of opportu- nity to draw their salaries ; and a generous collection,
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by royal order, was made in England and sent to Mr. Inglis of New York, to be distributed among certain Missionaries in that province, New Jersey, and Con- necticut. In January, 1782, the Rev. Mr. Fogg of Pomfret memorialized the General Assembly, sitting by adjournment at Hartford, and prayed that he might have permission to go to New York, "under such regulations and restrictions, and in such way as their Honors in their wisdom should judge expedient," for the purpose of negotiating his dues from the So- ciety for the last seven years, and "the same to bring out in hard money only." Though the Selectmen of the town supported Mr. Fogg, and represented him as having "conducted himself in a peaceable and quiet manner since the contest began with Great Britain," yet the prayer of the memorial was not granted.
The clergy could not officiate publicly and use the prayers for the King and Royal Family accord- ing to the Liturgy without exposing themselves to inevitable destruction; and to omit these prayers, as before stated, was contrary to their oath and views of duty, as well as to the dictates of their conscience. Therefore, to avoid the evils of this dilemma, at a Con- vention held in New Haven, July 23d, 1776, (Mr. Jarvis presiding,) they resolved to suspend the public exercise of their ministerial functions. Some of them had already done this by the direction of their people, and all the churches in Connecticut were thus for a time closed except those under the oversight of Mr. Beach, which were kept open during the war. That at Redding, however, could hardly have been used by him with the full Liturgy, in the winter of 1779, when General Putnam was stationed there to cover the
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ountry adjoining the Sound, and to support the gar- ison at West Point in case of an attack. But be this s it may, after the independence of the colonies was leclared, he continued to officiate as usual and pray or the King, and no threats of personal violence could ilence the voice of his public duty. The churchmen e of Newtown had now become the major part of the population, and the Redding Association of Loyalists vas a strong body whose secret influence was felt throughout the mission of the venerable pastor. His " course gave great offence to the Sons of Liberty, and more than one attempt was made to bring him into subjection under the authority of the Congressional measures. But though gentle as a lamb in the inter- courses of private life, he was bold as a lion in the lischarge of his public duty. Nothing could intimi- late him ; and when warned of personal danger if he persisted, he declared, with the spirit and firmness of a martyr, "That he would do his duty, preach and pray for the King, till the rebels cut out his tongue." A squad of patriots watched him one day as he en- tered his desk, and a loaded musket was pointed at him as he proceeded in the forms of the Liturgy, evi- dently intending to take his life if he used the prayers for "our most gracious Sovereign, King George" and the Royal family; but God, who "restrains the re- mainder of wrath," withheld the hand of the assassin, or rendered the shot harmless,1 so that his head, "sil- f
1 While officiating one day in Redding, a shot was fired into the church, and the ball struck above him and lodged in the sounding-board. Pausing for a moment, he repeated the words : " Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul ; but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." He then proceeded in the service without further interruption.
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vered o'er with age," was spared the bloody destruc tion that was threatened.
Mr. Tyler of Norwich, who lived in such constan dread of his enemies that he was afraid, if tradition speak the truth, to drink the water from his own well said in July, 1776: "I had a conference with the pro fessors of the Church of England in my parish, respect ing the prayer for the King, now that the Continenta Congress has declared the colonies independent of Great Britain; and put it to vote whether we should continue the use of the Liturgy without any altera- tion, or omit public worship altogether; and the vote passed unanimously for omitting public worship in the church for the present." During this intermis sion he officiated for the people in his own house without molestation, and visited other towns in the colony, where he preached and administered the two sacraments "generally necessary to salvation." The same authority which ordered the closing of the church caused it to be reopened November 27, 1778, the reasons for which step can best be given in Mr. of Tyler's own words: "There was a meeting of the fu professors of the Church of England, in which I of- th fered to officiate again, to use the whole Liturgy, except the prayers for the King and Parliament; my reasons were to this effect: That the cause of religion ought not to be annihilated on a civil account; that public worship was of too much consequence to be to- tally omitted on account of a few words in a liturgy; that my obligations, though binding at first, could not be so to use the whole Liturgy now, when matters were so much altered. Christ's kingdom is not of this world, and so may exist without the civil powers: an
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bligation that becomes wrong, or impossible to ad- ere to, is of course null and void. In consequence, de people voted almost unanimously to open the urch, omitting the prayers for the King and Par- ament."
His neighbor at New London, Mr. Graves, was not such pliant principles. His loyalty far outran that his parishioners, for when they respectfully re- quested him to discontinue reading the offensive part the Liturgy, he declared that he could not con- er ientiously comply. He paid no heed to the inti- ations, that, if he persisted, perilous consequences ight ensue. The next Sunday a company of ardent higs stationed themselves near the door of the church, ith one in the porch to give the concerted signal by riking the bell, and no sooner had Mr. Graves com- ienced the prayer for the King, than the throng oured in, led by two athletic men, who drew him om the high seat of his devotions, and "brought him xpeditiously to the level of the floor."1 A couple f resolute matrons belonging to the congregation ushed forward, and putting themselves in front of ne unfortunate Missionary, evinced their determina- Ion of standing between him and all harm. Finally e was allowed to escape, and "fled, in his surplice, to he house of a parishioner, who, though a warm Whig, as his personal friend, and protected him from the iolence of the mob." The doors of the church were hen fastened, and for some time the regular course f parish business was interrupted, and the usual offi- ers were not chosen.
The first attempt to resume public services was 1 Caulkins's Hist. of New London, p. 446.
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made at a parish meeting November 14, 1778, when it was "put to vote, that no person be permitted to enter the church and act as a pastor to it, unless he openly prays for Congress and the free and indepen- dent States of America, and their prosperity by sea and land." The vote was adopted by a small major- ity, but challenged on the ground that those had par- ticipated in it who had no right, and the final result was ten on either side. The Wardens were therefore instructed to wait on the Rev. Mr. Graves and ac quaint him with this vote, and if it was agreeable to him to officiate as pastor of the church according to its terms, he might be admitted the next day, which was Sunday. But he was inflexible, and declined to comply with the proposition of the parishioners. Not many months after this occurrence he was conveyed to New York by a flag of truce, where he died sud- denly, April 5th, 1780. His letter to the Society, dated September 29th, the month after his departure from New London, may very properly close our notices of his checkered life: "After undergoing a continued scene of persecutions, afflictions, and trials, almost even unto death, for my religious principles and unshaken loyalty to my King and country, I obtained permis- sion to remove to New York, where I live under the wings of liberty, and the protection of His Majesty's Government; which ineffable blessing may God con- tinue to us and our posterity till time shall be no more!
"I was often desired to officiate during these un- happy times, but as often abhorred the idea of an In- dependent church. However, I have faithfully per- formed all occasional duties; visiting the sick, burying .
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he dead, and baptizing the children of several dis- enters, as well as those of my own communion.
"How I have supported my family, [he was a bach- lor who kept house with a maiden sister,] God only nows; having been obliged to sell part of the furni- ure of my rooms and kitchen, and even my negro irl; and at last to take up money on the best terms could,-our paper currency being 20-25, and now 30 or one silver dollar. But I hope the time of redemp- ion draws nigh, and that our merciful, though of- ended God will consider our souls in adversity, and raciously deliver us from the pride, malice, and de- ices of a rebellious, persecuting people."
By a vote of the parishioners in January, 1780, the Congregational Society at New London was allowed the use of the church "during the severity of the Winter and the pleasure of the Church." But in the ucceeding June an attempt was made to restore their e wn worship, and it was voted in parish meeting, "that he Church-wardens call on the Rev. Mr. Tyler of Norwich to officiate in the church, or any gentleman hat will officiate as he does respecting the prayers." A ear later, it was again "voted that the Wardens all on some reverend gentleman to officiate in the Church of St. James, after the manner of the Rev. Mr. arvis or Mr. Hubbard." These votes, which failed to ecure ministrations, throw light upon the practice of 0 he clergy in other places. It is impossible to tell rom his Parochial Register when and how long Mr. Hubbard discontinued the public services in Trinity Church, but he probably obeyed the resolve of the Convention which met in New Haven soon after the Declaration of Independence, and then quietly re- e
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turned to his duties in the sanctuary, praying "open ly," like the rest of his brethren, "for Congress and the free and independent States of America." There was no neglect of the parish organization in New Haven during the Revolution, the annual Easter meetings being duly held for the choice of officers; but the name of Isaac Doolittle, who had been from the first one of its Wardens and principal supporters, and who was also an ardent Whig, and interested in erecting a powder-mill near the town after the war broke out, was dropped from the list of officers in 1777, and not restored until after the preliminary treaty of peace had been signed at Paris. Though the loyalty of Mr Hubbard was well known, he conducted himself so discreetly and inoffensively that he was not seriously embarrassed in his ministrations, which were extended north to Bethany, and on the shore of the Sound east to Guilford, and west to Fairfield.
While the British army occupied New York, the towns on the sea-board were continually liable to incursions of the enemy; and early in the morning of Monday, the 5th of July, 1779, a fleet of vessels of war, under Sir George Collier, and transports with troops, under General Tryon, anchored off West Ha- ven, and by mid-day the city was in the possession of the invaders, and bloodshed, plunder, and destruction followed. The British "officers treated Mr. Hubbard and his family with respect and kindness, forbidding any soldiers to enter his house, or in any manner to molest his premises; and in consequence of this exemp- tion from troublesome visits from the soldiery, he was enabled to save a considerable amount of property to the suffering inhabitants." On the afternoon of Tues-
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ty General Tryon withdrew his forces, and the fleet t sail to the westward; and the next morning the oops again disembarked upon the beach at Fairfield. hat town was not destined to escape like New Haven. was first plundered; and then the houses of the habitants, together with the two churches, the court- puse, jail, school-houses, and barns filled with wheat ad other produce, were burnt. "General Tryon," said le Congregational pastor, communicating the facts his brother at Boston, "was in various parts of the own plot, with the good women begging and en- eating him to spare their houses. Mr. Sayre, the hurch of England Missionary, a gentleman firmly nd zealously engaged in the British interest, and who as suffered considerably in their cause, joined with hem in these entreaties; he begged the General to pare the town, but was denied. He then begged that ome few houses might be spared, as a shelter for hose who could provide habitations nowhere else; his was denied also." The commanding General was on a barbarous frame of mind, and apologized after- vards for his course, by saying that "the village was urnt to resent the fire of the rebels from their houses, Ind to mask our retreat."
Mr. Sayre was not one of those prudent Mission- tries who escaped the insults and hatred of his adver- aries. The unfinished church at North Fairfield, where galleries were erected shortly after it came inder his care, was subjected to the most beastly de- ilements, and the windows broken. It was not that he offended by praying for the King, for he said, in a letter to the Society, dated at Flushing, L. I., Novem- ber 8, 1779: "We did not use any part of the Liturgy
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lately, for I could not make it agreeable, either to my inclination or conscience, to mutilate it, especially in so material a point as that is wherein our duties as subjects are recognized. We met at the usual hours every Sunday, read parts of the Old and New Testa- ments, and some Psalms. All these were selected in such a manner as to convey such instructions and sen- timents as were suited to our situation. We sang Psalms with the same view. On Sunday mornings I read the Homilies in their course, and on the after. noons I expounded either parts of the Catechism, or some such passages of Holy Scripture as seemed adapted to our case in particular, or to the public calamities in general. By this method we enjoyed one of the two general designs of public religious meetings, I mean public instruction; the other, to wit, public worship, it is easy to believe was inadmissible in our circumstances, without taking such liberties with the service as I confess I should blame even a superior in the Church for assuming. Resolved to ad- here to these principles and public professions, which, upon very mature deliberation and clear conviction, I had adopted and made, I yielded not a tittle to those who opposed them, and had determined to remain with my people to see the end, but was compelled to alter this resolution by that sudden vicissitude which I must now, with painful reflection, relate to the So- ciety. On the 7th day of July last, Major General Tryon landed at Fairfield with a body of His Majesty's troops, and took possession of the town and its en- virons, the greater part of the inhabitants having tackled their teams and removed what they could on his approach. This cut off all hope from the few
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byalists of saving any part of their effects if the wn should be burnt, every carriage being taken vay. The General was so kind, however, as to order e a guard to protect my house and some others in s vicinity, when he had resolved to commit the rest the town to the flames; for, as I had already hinted, had determined to remain at home. But the un- gar overnable flames soon extended to them all, and in few minutes left me, with a family consisting of my ife and eight children, destitute of food, home, and iment. Thus reduced, I could not think of remain- ng in a place where it would have been impossible b have clothed and refurnished my family. There- yetore, availing myself of the protection offered by the resent opportunity, I retired with them within the King's lines. As it was impossible (from the want of bl arriages) to save anything out of the house, the val- able little library given by the Society was burnt, ogether with my own; and the plate belonging to Trinity Church at Fairfield was lost, as well as that of my family, and that handsome church itself was entirely consumed."
But the expedition had not yet completed its dire- ful work, and after crossing the Sound to Huntington Bay, where it remained over Sunday, it returned to Norwalk, and the troops were once more landed, and prepared with the invader's torch. General Tryon, on the morning of the fatal day, sat in his chair upon Grummon's Hill, the scene of his headquarters, and complacently watched the flames as they lapped up dwelling after dwelling in the village, and finally reached that sanctuary which had so often echoed with the voices of loyal worshippers, and laid it in ashes.
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Thus Mr. Leaming, the worthy Missionary, was the victim of sufferings both from the American and Brit- ish parties. But let him tell his own story in this case. In a letter to the Secretary, dated at New York, the 29th day of the same month in which his church was burnt, he said: "It is now a long time since I have been able to convey a letter to the Society; and now I must give a disagreeable account of my affairs.
"On the 11th inst., [12th,] by the unavoidable event of the operation of His Majesty's troops under the command of General Tryon, my church, and great part of my parish, were laid in ashes, by which I have lost everything I had there,-my furniture, books, and all my papers, even my apparel, except what was on my back. My loss on that fatal day was not less than £1200 or £1300 sterling. Although in great danger, my life has been preserved, and I hope I shall never forget the kind providence of God in that try ing hour. In this situation I was brought by His Majesty's troops to this city, at which I shall, with the greatest pleasure, obey the Society's commands."
Nearly two years before, the same commanding General, with a detachment of 2000 men, penetrated to Danbury, a place which the commissioners of the American army had selected for depositing military stores; and while both the church and the meeting- house there were used as repositories, his troops are said to have taken the stores out of the church and burned them in the streets, saving the sacred edifice, but they devoted the meeting-house to the flames.
If we step back into the interior of the colony, we shall find, at this period, that excitement ran high, and in some places a most wicked spirit prevailed.
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he building unused generally goes to decay, and is ten a mark for the stones of the vicious. In West- iry, (now Watertown,) the windows of the Episcopal urch were demolished, as they were in other local- ies, and the principal members were confined to their rms, and not allowed to attend public worship. At itchfield, American soldiers broke into the sanctuary, ok the parish papers that were deposited in a chest, nd tore them to pieces. Washington, to his praise be spoken, frowned on all such wantonness; and when passed through that town during the war, and me of his soldiers threw a shower of stones at the hurch, he rebuked them, saying: "I am a churchman, nd wish not to see the church dishonored and deso- ted in this manner." Mr. Marshall of Woodbury was ne of the Missionaries of the Society who was com- elled to encounter all the obloquy and persecution that bring from the malice and rage of an unrestrained opulace. Missiles were hurled at him as he walked orth into the public highway. "He was frequently orbidden to preach; sometimes forcibly taken in the hidst of his sermon, and led out of the house in which e was officiating. Once he was waylaid on his return rom Roxbury, and so severely beaten that he was con- ined to his room for several weeks from the injuries hat he received." 1 It is painful to call up these facts, ut they are a portion of the history of the times, and ught not to be withheld. The Missionaries, for the nost part, bore their wrongs in silence, for they were ifraid to say much, even when they had the oppor- unity of communicating with their friends abroad. 'It is a long time," wrote Mr. Beach to the Secretary,
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