USA > Connecticut > The records of convocation, 1790-1848 > Part 10
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Mr. Baldwin was invited by representatives of St. John's, North Guilford, and Christ Church, Guilford, in November, 1784, to take the lay readership in those parishes at a salary of eighty pounds, Connecticut currency, which was then equal to forty pounds sterling, and the rector- ship when ordained. As he had already commenced his work at Litch- field, he felt obliged to decline.
At the first ordination by Bishop Seabury in Christ Church, Middle- town, on August 3, 1785, he, with three others, was made deacon. He was ordained priest in Trinity Church, New Haven, on September 18, 1785, by the same Bishop.
He immediately entered upon the rectorship of St. Michael's, Litch- field.
His work was well planned and carefully carried out, both in the parish and county. He went all over the beautiful hills of Litchfield County reviving the courage of neglected and depressed Church folk. He saw that closed churches were opened, officiated in them himself, and, whenever possible, had the parochial organization completed and clergymen provided for them.
With sound wisdom he continued the excellent work of those ardent missionaries, Solomon Palmer, Thomas Davies, and Richard Clarke.
In 1793 he became Rector of Christ Church, Stratford, and spent thirty years of faithful service in that parish, adding to his labors some success- ful missionary effort in the surrounding region. For many years he took charge of Christ Church, Tashua, which as North Stratford had once been part of the mother parish. As Mr. Baldwin grew older he felt that the work of the parish needed a younger man, and in 1824 he resigned.
But to one full of energy, although verging on old age, idleness was impossible, and Mr. Baldwin began to officiate at Southington and Meriden, where the Church was beginning to make progress. These places quickly felt the benefit of his ministrations.
In 1827 he took charge of St. John's, North Haven, and St. Paul's, Wallingford. After five years of gratifying prosperity for these ancient parishes, he accepted temporarily the rectorship of St. Peter's, Oxford, and Christ Church, Quaker Farms. Here amid rural and pleasant sur-
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roundings, he spent two years. In 1834 he found that his eyesight was failing and other marks of old age were so apparent that active work for him must cease. For a few years after his resignation he lived in New Haven, Bridgeport, and Stratford.
To the Convention of the Diocese in 1837 Mr. Baldwin sent a touch- ing and pathetic letter, resigning his office as trustee of the Episcopal Academy, in which he graphically contrasted the condition of the Church in Connecticut when he was ordained and its rapid progress in fifty- two years. "My days of pilgrimage, I know, are almost closed, and I can do no more than to be in readiness by the grace of God to leave the Church Militant in peace. May I be permitted, Sir, to ask the prayers of my Bishop and his clergy that my last days may be happy?"
His closing years were spent in the family of an old friend who had removed from Connecticut to Rochester, New York, and who gladly made cheerful for him the weary hours of inaction. He ended his earthly life on Sunday, February 8, 1846, having nearly reached the age of eighty-nine years. Mr. Baldwin had a clear and logical mind. He was a ready speaker and could put into writing important papers, resolu- tions, or debates, with accurate rapidity. This made his service as secretary of the Convocation, as secretary of the Convention of the Diocese for thirty years, and as secretary of the House of Clerical and Lay Deputies of the General Convention for twelve years, invaluable.
Mr. Baldwin held nearly every position in the gift of the Diocese and filled each with efficiency and dignity.
At the time of his death he was the oldest clergyman of the American Church and the oldest graduate of Yale College.
THE REVEREND PHILO PERRY, M.A.
Philo, a son of Dr. Joseph and Ruth (Preston) Perry, was born in Woodbury, Connecticut, on December 22, 1752. His father was a well known physician.
His early education was received in the common schools and under the careful guidance of his father. In his twenty-first year he entered Yale College and was graduated in 1777.
He studied medicine and settled in Stratford, where he built up an extensive practice.
It is probable that he attended Christ Church, then lovingly served by the Rev. Jeremiah Leaming, and through his influence entered upon a course of theology.
With David Belden, "Tilley" Bronson and Reuben Ives, he was recommended for ordination by the Convocation at Derby in September, 1786. The four candidates were made deacons on the feast of St. Matthew, September 21, 1786, in Christ Church, Derby, by Bishop Seabury.
On January 9, 1787, Mr. Perry became the Rector of Trinity Church, Newtown.
This parish, one of the very oldest in the Diocese, had been organized in 1732 by the Rev. John Beach, of blessed memory, whose long and
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brave witness for the truth as this Church hath received the same, had built up congregations in Newtown and Redding, which were the largest of our communion in the colony.
The four years since the death of Mr. Beach, on March 19, 1782, and the ravages of the Revolution had somewhat impaired its strength.
Mr. Perry entered upon his work with great enthusiasm; by faithful industry, patience and tact he repaired the waste places of the parish. Mr. Perry was ordained priest in St. John's Church, Stamford, on Trinity Sunday, June 3, 1787, by Bishop Seabury, "upon a Title," says the Bishop's Register, "from Christ's Church, Newton, and from the Church at Newberry." 1
As a pastor Mr. Perry was constant, both in personal appeals for holiness of life and frequent in his visitations of his parishioners. He is represented as a man of genial manners, a modest demeanor, and sufficient learning.
His ability as a preacher can be partly judged by an extract of a manuscript sermon of Mr. Perry in the possession of the writer from the text: "Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." Ephesians iv, 3. After considering the circumstances under which the Epistle was written he develops the theme: "We cannot preserve 'the unity of the Spirit' unless we hold to the doctrines taught by the Spirit." In the course of his argument, he insists upon true Christian charity to all men and the duty of Christian forgiveness. In conclusion, he says: "Now, to sum up the whole in a few words: If we have any regard to the welfare of the Church, if we have any regard to our own welfare in the present life, and to our complete felicity in the next, let us all, my friends & Brethren, endeavour, by all the means in our power, 'to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.' As to doctrines, let us 'be perfectly joined together in the same mind & in the same judgment,'-unanimously grounded & settled in the truly excellent and apostolical doctrines of our Church ;- not being 'tossed to & fro, & carried about with every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men, & cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; for this never fails to end in schism and separation.
"As to our behaviour one toward another; let it be always such as to show forth that meek & quiet spirit, which in the sight of God is of great price,' that heavenly wisdom which is peaceable, gentle & easy to be entreated. Let us put away all bitterness & wrath & anger & clamour & evil speaking with all malice; & be kind one to another, tender hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven us.' If we will thus be directed & governed by the Gospel law of Charity, it will be no difficult matter to preserve unity, peace, & concord in the Chh which that we may do, & finally be united with the Church triumphant in Heaven, God of his infinite mercy grant, thro our Lord Jesus Christ. To whom &c., &c."2
1. P. 6. A Reprint in full of the Registry of Ordinations by Bishops Seabury and Jarvis. As published in the Journal of A. D. 1882, by order of the Convention.
2 From a collection of manuscript sermons, made by the Rev. Dr. Burhans. This sermon is endorsed : Newtown, Novr. 6, 1791, and Sept. 29, 1793, Another sermon of Mr. Perry from Romans viii, 16, is endorsed : Newtown, Augt. 7, 1796, Augt. 13, 1797, and Brook- field, May 6, 1798.
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Within five years after Mr. Perry's settlement in Newtown a new church seemed necessary. It replaced that built in 1746, which was forty- six feet long and thirty-five feet wide.
The new church was considered very spacious and elegant and served the parish for nearly eighty years.
The consecration was on Thursday, September 19, 1793, by Bishop Seabury, it being the fifth church consecrated by him in the Diocese.
Mr. Perry continued for five years more to minister in holy things to the people of Newtown, but in the midst of his usefulness he departed this life on October 26, 1798, in the forty-sixth year of his age.
While still young in his ministry, he had obtained the confidence and regard of his Bishop and brethren of the clergy.
He was secretary of the Convocation, secretary of the Convention, a member and secretary of the Standing Committee, and a deputy to the General Convention.
When the present Trinity Church, Newtown, was consecrated on June 8, 1882, there were unveiled four mural tablets of marble and brass commemorating the founder and three other rectors of the parish. Upon that in memory of Mr. Perry there is this truthful inscription :
"He was the devoted and efficient Rector of this Parish-and a Clergy- man of eminence in the Councils of the Church."
THE REVEREND REUBEN IVES, M.A.
Reuben, a son of Mr. Zachariah Ives, was born in Cheshire, Connecti- cut, on October 26, 1762.
His early life and preliminary education were in his native town. In his twentieth year he entered Yale College, from which he was graduated in 1786.
It had been from boyhood his cherished desire to enter the holy ministry. The lack of clergymen was so great in the Diocese that Bishop Seabury was willing to ordain him without full theological preparation with the understanding that he would give attention to such studies during his diaconate. Mr. Ives was recommended for ordination by the Convocation during its meeting at Derby in September, 1786.
On St. Matthew's Day, September 21, 1786, he was made deacon with three others, in Christ Church, Derby, by Bishop Seabury.
The great privilege was accorded to the young deacon of becoming a member of the Bishop's household and pursuing under his direction a thorough course in patristic and Anglican theology, liturgics and Church history. Mr. Ives also had practical instruction in pastoral theology by acting as the Bishop's assistant in St. James's Church, New London, and during the necessary absences of the Bishop taking charge of the pastoral work.
On St. Matthias' Day, February 24, 1788, Reuben Ives, Tillotson Bronson and Chauncey Prindle were ordained priests, and Edward Blakeslee made deacon in St. James's Church, New London, by Bishop Seabury.
He became at once Rector of St. Peter's Church, Cheshire.
1
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The earliest services of the Church in that town, which was until 1780 "the western society of Wallingford," although the name New Cheshire was given to it from 1720, were about 1750. It formed part of the mission field of the Rev. Ichabod Camp, Rector of Christ Church, Middletown, from 1752 to 1760. It was faithfully served by him for eight years. It then came under the care of the Rev. Samuel Andrews, missionary at Wallingford, who took great pains to implant true Church principles in the people of Cheshire. The first church, which was a square building, forty-two by forty-two feet, and very high, was erected in 1760. Upon Mr. Andrews' removal to Nova Scotia in 1785, there had been only occasional services until Mr. Ives was summoned home to be the first resident rector. By agreement he gave to Cheshire two- thirds of his time and spent the remainder in officiating in the neighbor- ing towns, particularly Wallingford and North Haven.
By his faithful ministrations the congregations were so increased that in 1795 an enlargement of the church was necessary.
There was long current among the elder clergy of the Diocese a story that when Bishop Seabury on a visitation to Cheshire was told by one of the parishioners that the parish was intending to add a steeple to the church, he quickly replied with one of his bright flashes of wit: "You had better build a Church to your steeple.
When the plan for an Academy for the education of the children of the Church was proposed by Bishop Seabury and some of the clergy, Mr. Ives was one of its firmest supporters. He thought that Cheshire pos- sessed many advantages and was instrumental in locating there the Episcopal Academy.
Until 1820 he was diligent in labor and careful in the administration of the parish. The causes of his resignation are only thus alluded to by Dr. Beardsley, the historian of the parish: "Circumstances then, of which it is needless now to speak, led to a dissolution of a connection which had existed for a period of more than thirty years. During this time, the Church had apparently been visited with the love and favor of God."1
Mr. Ives' work did not cease in other parts of the county when he resigned the rectorship of Cheshire, and it is the testimony of those who know that several parishes in the county of New Haven were by him rescued from an almost moribund condition and restored to vigor and prosperity.
Mr. Ives died at his home in Cheshire on October 14, 1836, having nearly reached his seventy-fourth year.
He was one of the humble and meek of the earth, whose work and labor of love were indeed appreciated by his contemporaries, but did not make him well known to the Church at large.
1 P. 10. A Historical Sermon delivered in St. Peter's Church, Cheshire, July 28th, 1839 ; it being the last Sunday on which divine service was performed in the old Church. By Rev. E. E. Beardsley, Rector of the Parish. * * * Hartford; Printed by Case, Tiffany & Co., Pearl Street, 1839. 8vo, pp. 16.
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THE REVEREND CHAUNCEY PRINDLE, M.A.
Chauncey, the only son of Eleazar and Anna (Scovill) Prindle, was born in that part of Waterbury, Connecticut, then called Westbury, now Watertown, on July 13, 1753. After being instructed in the district schools he was carefully prepared for college by his uncle, the Rev. James Scovill, Rector of St. John's, Waterbury. He entered Yale College in his nineteenth year and graduated with honor in 1776. During the years of the Revolution he remained at home, and like other young men who could not serve in the Continental Army, cultivated his father's farm to supply a portion of the food needed by the troops in the field. It is also probable that he assisted his uncle in the wide missionary circuit assigned to Waterbury.
With Philo Shelton he studied theology under his uncle's direction. After due examination he was recommended for ordination by the convocation at its meeting in Stamford on May 31, 1787. With Ambrose Todd and Bethuel Chittenden he was made deacon in St. John's Church, Stamford, on Friday, June 1, 1787.
His uncle had in the fall of 1785 received an offer from the Venerable Society to settle in New Brunswick, with a competent salary. The neces- sities of his family by the withdrawal from Missionaries of the Venera- ble Society remaining in the United States of the stipends they had received induced him to accept. During his absences in New Bruns- wick, Mr. Prindle supplied his place. When finally Mr. Scovill gave up his temporary arrangement of spending the winters in Waterbury and the summers in his new parish of Kingston, New Brunswick, and in March, 1788, settled permanently in New Brunswick, Mr. Prindle was able to officiate until a rector was called for Waterbury. Mr. Prindle had been lay reader in Watertown for some years previous to his ordination.
On February 15, 1788, he was formally called to be minister of St. Peter's, Northbury (now Plymouth), at a salary of thirty-seven pounds and ten shillings. During the same month he was also called to be minister of Christ Church, Watertown, at a salary of thirty pounds. It was stipulated that his time should be equitably divided between them.
Mr. Prindle went to New London soon after accepting the calls and was, at the same time with Reuben Ives and Tillotson Bronson, ordained priest on St. Matthias' Day, February 24, 1788, in St. James's Church, by Bishop Seabury. His work in Watertown and Plymouth was earnest, judicious, and successful. So rapid was the growth of the parish that the church built in 1765, whose dimensions were thirty-seven by forty- five feet, was too small. A new church was determined upon, a better site procured for it and a building larger and upon "a more elegant plan" was erected. It was occupied in the fall of 1793, and consecrated by Bishop Seabury on November 18, 1794. This served the parish until 1855, when a beautiful Gothic church was completed and consecrated.
At Plymouth the increase was equally gratifying. A church was needed to replace that which had been built about 1740. The only difficulty was in agreeing upon a suitable location; finally the new
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St. Peter's was built in 1796, and opened during the fall of that year. It was consecrated on November 2, 1797, by Bishop Jarvis, being the second of those consecrated by that prelate. It still stands upon its hill- top and its doors are still open for the service of prayer and praise.
Mr. Prindle continued to be the able pastor and persuasive preacher at Watertown until 1804, when he resigned to give his time more fully to Plymouth, which had felt severely the loss of many of its families who had removed to the "western wilderness," which was then in the neighborhood of Whitestown, a few miles beyond Utica, New York. In his farewell sermon at Christ Church, Watertown, Mr. Prindle stated that thirty families had been added to the congregation, there had been three hundred and eighty-one baptisms, eighty-six marriages and sixty- six burials.
An incident of his pastoral work was long told in Watertown as show- ing his determination to overcome obstacles. He had promised to preach at St. John's Church and to baptize some children in Waterbury whose parents were about to remove to the West. It was the mid- summer of 1795, and there was no clergyman in Waterbury. Between Watertown and Waterbury flows the Naugatuck river, which is about a third of a mile wide. It was usually crossed in a canoe or forded by travellers on horseback. Some distance beyond the village was a bridge. Mr. Prindle expected to cross in the canoe, but upon reaching the place where it was kept he found that the summer rains had so swollen the river that the canoe had disappeared. To retrace his steps and cross by the bridge would make him late for his appointment. He plunged boldly into the rapid stream and swam across in time to meet his friends, baptize their children and send them to their new home rejoicing. In 1806 Mr. Prindle resigned the charge of Plymouth, where he had been able in the two years he devoted to that work to build up again the congregation. During the eighteen years of his pastorate he had baptized three hundred and thirty-nine persons, married seventeen couples, and buried sixty persons.
In 1806 he became rector of St. Michael's Church, Salem (now Naugatuck), and also of St. Peter's, Oxford. His charge of Salem continued until 1814, but he remained at Oxford to the close of his life, the same clear and sound preacher and good pastor as in his first charge.
A church was soon commenced at Salem, and that in Oxford improved. St. Peter's, Oxford, was consecrated by Bishop Hobart on his memorable first visitation of the Diocese, on October 21, 1816.
Mr. Prindle was a real missionary and in every hamlet near his home was well known and honored. For some years he held services in Amity in Woodbridge, and in the later years of his life Christ Church, Bethany received his ministrations. Until extreme old age he labored in the Gospel without diminution of energy or fervor.
He died at his home in North Oxford on August 25, 1833, in the eighty-first year of his age and was buried in the old cemetery at Gunn- town.
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THE REVEREND DAVID FOOTE, M.A.
David, a son of Asa Foote, and a direct descendant of Nathaniel Foote, one of the original settlers of Wethersfield, Connecticut, was born in that part of Colchester now Marlborough, on October 5, 1760. His early years were spent in his native town, where he was fitted for college. In his twelfth year he entered Dartmouth College and was graduated in 1776.
This college in the woods of New Hampshire had under Dr. Eleazar Wheelock, its first president, an enviable reputation for scholarship.
There is no account of his occupations during twelve years after his graduation.
The parish of St. Peter, Hebron, was the nearest to Colchester, and the few churchmen in that town attended its services.
The greater part of St. Peter's congregation were patriots, but its rector, the Rev. Samuel Peters, one of the celebrities of the colony for his missionary zeal, intense dislike of the "Standing Order," and his literary ability, was an outspoken and aggressive loyalist. He went to England in 1774. It is possible that Mr. Foote officiated at St. Peter's although no traditions or records for that period of the parish history have been preserved.
The Rev. John Tyler, of Christ Church, Norwich, went out from that centre into all the surrounding country upon periodical missionary journeys. Mr. Tyler may have encouraged Mr. Foote to study for holy orders and superintended his studies. In June, 1788, the rector of Nor- wich presented him to the Bishop at New London for examination for the order of deacon. This ordeal was successfully passed, and on St. Barnabas Day, June II, 1788, David Foote was made deacon by Bishop Seabury in St. James's Church, New London.
Mr. Foote was licensed to preach and was appointed "to serve in the congregations of Hebron and Chatham."
The congregation that is meant in Chatham is evidently that at Middle Haddam, where a parish was formed in 1785 and a church built in 1787; for the parish in the portion of Chatham known now as Portland was not organized until September, 1788. There seems to be no records of Mr. Foote's ministrations in the archives of either parish in the town of Chatham.
Christ Church, Middle Haddam, was until 1791 under the charge of the Rev. Dr. Jarvis of Middletown, as was also Trinity Church, Portland. The first rector mentioned in the annals of the parishes who was resident is the Rev. Tillotson Bronson, in 1791.
Mr. Foote, although he has been almost forgotten, did diligently in Chatham and Hebron the varied duties of the ministry.
From his work of restoration and upbuilding he was called to the ancient parish of Grace (now Christ) Church, Rye, Westchester County, New York.
In this well ordered and settled community he found his efforts for greater temporal prosperity and spiritual growth fully seconded by the
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members of his new parish. A large increase in attendants and com- municants was soon apparent. But as he was maturing plans for the future he was suddenly taken from this world on August 1, 1793, in the thirty-third year of his age.
His brief ministry showed his courage, his endurance, and his patience and held large promise of a brilliant and faithful career.
Mr. Foote retained his interest in the Diocese of Connecticut, attended regularly its convocations and conventions and was reckoned among its clergy. His name is also found upon the clergy list of the Diocese of New York.
THE REVEREND ABRAHAM LYNSEN CLARKE, M.A.
Abraham Lynsen Clarke is said to have been a native of Milford, Connecticut, but his parentage, date of birth, and the events of his early years do not seem to be known.
He was graduated from Yale College in 1785, and then, according to tradition, became lay reader in St. Peter's Church in his native town.
When the Rev Henry Van Dyck left Milford to assume the rectorship of Christ Church, Poughkeepsie and Trinity Church, Fishkill, Mr. Clarke was left in charge of St. Peter's Church. With Bryan Fairfax, of Vir- ginia, he was made deacon by Bishop Seabury in Christ Church, Stam- ford, on June 9, 1786. In the spring of 1787 he became rector of St. Paul's Church, Huntington, in succession to the Rev. Christopher New- ton, who had died on February 6, 1787. He was also rector of Christ Church, Tashua, to which he gave one-third of his time.
He served these parishes with devotion and discretion during his diaconate. Upon Trinity Sunday, June 7, 1789, in St. Paul's Church, Norwalk, with the Rev. Ambrose Todd and the Rev. Ambrose Hull, he was ordained priest by Bishop Seabury.
A new church was commenced at Tashua in 1789. It was fifty feet in length, thirty feet in breadth, and twenty-four feet in height. The church was finished in 1790 and consecrated by Bishop Seabury on June 8, 1795.
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