USA > Connecticut > The records of convocation, 1790-1848 > Part 12
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Its location was nearly in the centre of the Green. The Court House stood about opposite the centre of Town street with the "meeting house" on the east and the school house on the west.
The Rev. Judah Champion, a native of East Haddam, Connecticut, who had been settled on July 4, 1753, was then the pastor. Mr. Cham- pion was the firm and helpful friend of the Continental soldiers, many of whom passed through Litchfield on their way to the American camps on the Hudson and in the Jersies. He often gave them substantial meals and provided clothing and other necessities.
The story was long told in Litchfield of a Sabbath afternoon of weaving and knitting by the women of his congregation when the capture of St. John's New Brunswick, and the destitute condition of the American troops had been announced from the pulpit in the morning.
A prayer of Mr. Champion's in which he implored the destruction of the enemies of America and the safety of its defenders has often been quoted. Mr. Champion served for some time as a chaplain in the Con- tinental Army. He retired from active service in the ministry in October, 1798, and died in 1810, in his eighty-first year. Throughout his long life he was socially and religiously a power in the community.
The first St. Michael's Church was built in 1747, on a hill about a mile west of the centre of the village. The second church was built upon one of the main streets in 1812. It was consecrated in 1824, by Bishop Brownell.
The third church was built upon the same site in 1851 and consecrated by Bishop Brownell on December 16, 1851.1
I The Rev. Dr. Seymour, the present Rector of St. Michael's, has furnished some inter esting particulars for this note.
Note III
David, a son of Micah and Grace (Sturgis) Perry, was born in 1747.
His ancestors were well known in Fairfield County and traced their descent from Richard Perry, an eminent lawyer, who had emigrated from England in 1637, settled in New Haven in 1642 and had acquired large tracts of land in Fairfield County.
David Perry studied medicine, and at the age of twenty-five settled in Ridgefield. He soon had an extensive practice in that pleasant town and the surrounding region. He is said to have been both bold and successful in the trial of new remedies. Dr. Perry was a stanch supporter of St. Stephen's Church.
This parish owes its existence to the missionary zeal of the Rev. Dr. Samuel Johnson, who visited the town in 1725. It was faithfully served by the Rev. Henry Caner, the Rev. John Beach, the Rev. James Wet- more, the Rev. Joseph Lawson, the Rev. Richard Clark, and the Rev. Epenetus Townsend during the Colonial period. Mr. Townsend left Ridgefield early in July, 1776. The services were then suspended. The first church had been built in 1740 "directly in front of the Sturtevant lot." It became a storehouse for supplies for the American Army and was burned by the British in April, 1777, on their return from the raid on Danbury. No regular services of the church seem to have been held until after the Revolution, when Dr. Perry acted as lay reader. A meeting to consider the building of a new church was held on June 19, , 1784. Dr. Perry seems to have been very active in arousing the latent energy of the parish and his name heads the call for this meeting. It was then determined to build a new church whose dimensions were to be "forty by thirty feet with eighteen foot posts" at "the northeast corner of the Sturtevant lot so called adjoining the town street in the first society of Ridgefield on a piece of ground given by Benjamin Smith for that pur- pose." While the frame of the church was finished and the building occupied in 1785, it was not fully completed and furnished until 1791.
After the brief incumbency of four months in 1788 by the Rev. David Belden, deacon, Dr. Perry resumed his duties as lay reader, to the great satisfaction of the congregation. At a parish meeting held at the Town House on the first Monday in August, 1789, it was "voted that Doct. David Perry receive Holy Orders for this Society." The "Records" give the fact of his ordination as Deacon on June 6, 1790. In the "Register" the Bishop records the ordination as "special." The candidate had been recommended by the clergy and was "licensed to preach." 1
The double duty of priest and physician seems at first to have been performed with much vigor. Three parishes were under his care, Ridge-
1 P. 8, Registry of Ordinations, by Bishops Seabury and Jarvis.
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field, Redding, and Danbury. He fully earned the higher office of priest- hood to which he was ordained in St. John's Church, Stratfield (now Bridgeport), on October 16, 1791.1 His presenter was the Rev. Philo Shelton.
The growth of the congregations made necessary more supervision than such a busy man as Dr. Perry could give. Discontent arose in some portions of the parish. Rumors of it at last reached the ears of the Bishop and his clerical brethren. They had been grieved that he did not attend the meetings of either the Convention or Convocation. Severe comments were made upon his conduct and urgent requests sent to him to show respect and regard for his brethren by attendance.
The Convocation finally took action in 1794, as the "Records" show. To the Bishop's letter of admonition a reply was received from Dr. Perry, in which he declared his intention of resigning immediately his pastoral charge and relinquishing the exercise of his ministry. This letter, as the text of the Records informs us, was laid before the Convocation on June 3, 1795.
There seems to have been no more formal act of deposition than the resolution entered upon the "Records." 2
Dr. Perry continued in lay communion, devoting all his time to the practice of medicine, until his death on May 8, 1822.
His son and grandson became well known physicians in Ridgefield, where his descendants were for many years faithful members of the parish which he had served.
1 P. 8, Registry of Ordinations.
2 See pp. 44, 45, 46, 47, ante.
Note IV
THE REVEREND DANIEL FOGG.
Daniel Fogg, the son of a prosperous farmer, was born at Rye, New Hampshire, on August 18, 1743.
The death of his father and mother while he was a child placed him at an early age under the care of his uncle, the Rev. Jeremiah Fogg, who ยท was the Congregational minister of Kensington, a neighboring town.
By him the boy was carefully trained, and in 1760 entered Harvard College. He maintained a high rank in his class and also excelled in all athletic sports, being, it is said, the best football player of his time. Mr. Fogg was graduated with high honors in 1764.
It was while in college that he studied the doctrines and polity of the Church of England, and probably learned much of her excellencies from the energetic young missionary of Christ Church, Cambridge, the Rev. East Apthorp, who was both a scholar and a busy parish priest. Becoming convinced of the primitive truth and apostolic order of the Church, he "declared" for it and studied theology under the Rev. Dr. Henry Caner of King's Chapel, Boston. This course of the nephew is represented as not displeasing to his uncle, who was "one of the small minority of his denomination holding Armenian tenets, thus naturally without any extreme antipathy to that very uncalvanistic body, the Communion of the Church of England in America."1 To support himself he opened a school of high grade in Newburyport, which was well patronized.
In the spring of 1770 he "went home" to England to receive Holy Orders. He was duly confirmed, passed successfully the Bishop of London's examination, and was made deacon on August 19, 1770, and was ordained priest on August 24, 1770, by the Rt. Rev. Richard Terrick, Bishop of London.
Upon his return he became temporarily assistant to Dr. Caner.
After a brief service in Boston, Mr. Fogg went to North Carolina, where he did faithful work as a missionary and a teacher. Ill health obliged him to seek again a Northern climate, and in May, 1772, he accepted the incumbency of Trinity Church, Brooklyn, in the town of Pomfret, Connecticut.
The story of the building of this church through the determination of Colonel Godfrey Malbone, who owned a large 'estate in Pomfret, is one of the romantic incidents of our Connecticut Church history.
Mr. Fogg was an industrious and painstaking pastor.
During the Revolution he remained in Brooklyn, which was also the home of the patriot General Putnam, sharing with Colonel Malbone the
1 The Rev. Thomas Brinley Fogg, in The Herald, New London, Archdeaconry Quar- terly, March, 1891. Vol. I, No. 3.
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odium of being a Tory. Neither was molested. While the church had to be closed, there was no disturbance of the services held at the house of Colonel Malbone.
Mr. Fogg was one of the ten clergymen who, on the Feast of the Annunciation, 1783, met at Woodbury to elect a Bishop for Connecticut. The importance of his letters on the subject has been already noted.
In the quiet discharge of his duty in a parish which was neither wealthy nor able to expand largely, he passed the remainder of his life.
He is described as the kind friend and adviser of his parishioners, fond of society and an agreeable companion. His sermons, it is said, were highly esteemed by persons of good judgment.
Mr. Fogg departed this life on June 29, 1815, in the seventy-second year of his age. The burial was in Trinity Churchyard on July 2. The Rev. Philander Chase came from Hartford to perform this last office for his brother in the ministry.
THE REVEREND JOHN TYLER.
John, a son of John and Mary (Doolittle) Tyler, was born in Walling- ford, Connecticut, on August 15, 1742. He was descended from Roger Tyler, one of the original proprietors of Wallingford.
Mr. Tyler was graduated from Yale College in 1765 with distinction and pronounced the valedictory oration. He took a post graduate course at King's College, New York City (now Columbia University), under that versatile, accomplished man, President Miles Cooper. This was then very unusual. He received both the Bachelor's and Master's degrees from that institution. Like many other young men in Con- necticut, he abandoned the "Standing Order" in which he had been brought up, declared for the Church, and studied theology under the Rev. Dr. Samuel Johnson, then enjoying a well earned rest at Stratford. He assisted Dr. Johnson on Sundays, and by some of the people of Christ Church was thought worthy to be the successor of that Nestor of the Colonial Church. He had also read the services in Dr. Johnson's native town, Guilford, vacant by the removal of the Rev. Bela Hubbard to New Haven.
Mr. Tyler went to England on May 10, 1768, sailing from New York in the ship Edward. He bore testimonials from Dr. Johnson and the Connecticut clergy to the Bishop of London and the Venerable Society. He also carried a petition from the Wardens and Vestry of Christ Church, Guilford, for the erection of a new mission, of which Guilford should be the central station and the appointment of Mr. Tyler as the missionary.
Upon his arrival in England he sought first the powerful personal aid of the Hon. William Samuel Johnson, a son of Dr. Johnson, then the agent of the Colony of Connecticut in London. By him he was intro- duced to many persons of influence and the object of his quest facilitated.
He was examined on June 20, by Dr. Carr, chaplain to the Bishop of London. On Friday, June 24, the feast of St. John Baptist, "at nine
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o'clock in the morning," Mr. Tyler was made deacon by the Rt. Rev. Dr. Terrick, Bishop of London. On Wednesday, June 29, St. Peter's Day, he was ordained priest in Fulham Chapel by the same prelate.
It was a very great disappointment that Dr. Burton, the Secretary, and other authorities of the Venerable Propagation Society would not erect Guilford into a mission. Mr. Tyler was chosen by the Society for the mission at Norwich, made vacant by the removal of the Rev. John Beardsley to Poughkeepsie, New York, with a salary of thirty pounds a year.
Mr. Tyler sailed for New York on August 2 in the same vessel in which he went to England. After a stormy passage and much detention by contrary winds, the Edward reached New York on September 26, I768.
He made several visits to friends in New York and Stratford, spent some days with his family at the home in Wallingford, and commenced his duties at Norwich on November I.
A journal kept by him during the six months he spent in obtaining Holy Orders, which give many interesting glimpses of his life on ship- board and sojourn in London, was privately printed in 1894 by Mr. Tyler's grandson, the Rev. Dr. Alfred L. Brewer, the founder of St. Matthew's Hall, San Mateo, California.
Mr. Tyler was an earnest and faithful pastor. When Trinity Church, Pomfret, was ready for use, Colonel Malbone invited Mr. Tyler to preach the opening sermon. It is said that the service of opening "was made as nearly one of consecration as was possible."
During the Revolution the Rector of Norwich remained in his parish. The church was closed from 1776 to 1779, but services were held in the Rector's house. He suffered little indignity from the patriots, although it is traditional that there were attempts to poison his well.
In 1779 Mr. Tyler, after consultation with his parishioners, agreed to open the church and use the prayer for Congress, provided the congrega- tion desired it. The church was then opened, to the great satisfaction of the people. There were no startling events in the parish of Christ Church. Harmony and progress were apparent. As the years went on, Mr. Tyler became more endeared to the people. He practiced medicine freely among the poor, and this often won them to a true religious life.
Upon Sunday, February 28, 1796, Mr. Tyler had the distinction of officiating at the funeral of the first Bishop of the American Church, Dr. Samuel Seabury, at New London. Mr. Tyler died on January 20, 1823, in the eighty-first year of his age.
Two sermons of Mr. Tyler's were printed, that at the "Opening of Trinity Church, Pomfret, April 5, 1771," and one upon "The Blessing of Peace," preached at Christ Church, Norwich, on the "Continental Thanksgiving," February 19, 1795. An extract from the sermon on Peace will show his style :
"I might, indeed, upon this Occasion congratulate with Views of our National Prosperity-of the extensiveness of our Territory-of the various and happy Climates in it-of our rapidly growing Numbers-of
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the great Increase of New Settlements-of the Security we enjoy by being so distant from powerful and corrupted Nations-of our various great and increasing Resources for Wealth or War. I might remind you that the natural means of our Subsistence are so great, that in a measure we are become the Granary of other Nations-that Knowledge and all useful arts are making great Progress among us-and I might boast of the Liberality and Prosperity of our free and happy Constitution of Gov- ernment. But what are all these things without the divine Blessing and Protection ? And what purpose would all this Adulation serve, but, instead of promoting real Gratitude to God, rather perhaps to excite and encourage pride; which is the great Bane of Man: and it is one great Purpose of God, in national as well as private Judgments to hide Pride from Man. I might indeed have said little else, except what would con- tribute something to promote the Arrogance of National Prosperity. But perhaps I should have fallen under the condemnation of the false Prophets in Judah; of whom Jehovah of Hosts said,-They have healed the hurt of the daughter of my People slightly, saying Peace, peace, when there is no Peace. For says the Prophet There is no Peace, saith my God, to the wicked. This last is what innumerable Facts in every Age have proclaimed. But more especially this holds true in free popular Governments, like ours. For there must be public Virtue, or they can not flourish with Peace and Prosperity. There must also be' private Virtue or there will be no such thing as public Virtue. There must be Religion, or there will be neither public nor private Virtue. There must be true Religion, otherwise there will be generally abundance of false Religion. And there must be attendance on the Worship of God, otherwise there will soon be no Religion at all." 1
THE REVEREND AMBROSE TODD, M.A.
Ambrose Todd was born in that portion of the town of Branford, Connecticut, known as Northford, on December 7, 1764.
He was educated in the common schools, studied assiduously to pre- pare himself for college and was graduated with honor from Yale College in 1786. He spent a year pursuing a course of theology and was made deacon by Bishop Seabury in St. John's Church, Stamford, on June I, 1787, at the same time as Mr. Chauncy Prindle and Mr. Bethuel Chit- tenden.2
He at once took charge of St. Andrew's Church, Simsbury (now St. Andrew's, Bloomfield), which was vacant by the final removal in 1787 of the Rev. Roger Viets, one of the most accomplished clergymen in the State and Diocese, to Digby, Nova Scotia.
Mr. Todd was ordained priest in St. Paul's Church, Norwalk, by Bishop Seabury, on Trinity Sunday, June 7, 1789, at the same time as the Rev. Ambrose Hall and the Rev. Abram Lynsen Clark.3
1 Pp. 17, 18, The Blessing of Peace, * *
* by John Tyler, A.M., 8vo, pp. 20. Printed by John Trumbull, Norwich, MDCCXCV.
2 P. 6, Registry of Ordinations.
3 P. 8, Registry of Ordinations.
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Mr. Todd's work in Simsbury, Granby and other places in the vicinity was both conscientious and successful. He was a man of profound earnestness and strict in his attention to all the duties of his ministry. His direct and plain speaking caused Mr. Alexander Viets Griswold, a nephew of the Rev. Roger Viets, to study for the ministry. The whole Church knows the result; a faithful priesthood, followed by an energetic episcopate in the association of dioceses, known as the Eastern Diocese, which revived the Church in the greater part of New England.
After eleven years of hard work, to the great sorrow of his par- ishioners, Mr. Todd accepted the rectorship of St. Paul's Church, Hunt- ington, Connecticut, where he remained until the close of his earthly life, using all faithful diligence in building up the parish.
Mr. Todd died of consumption, after an illness of three months, on July 25, 1809, in the forty-fifth year of his age.
A writer in The Churchman's Magazine describes Mr. Todd as "prudent in his secular concerns, and an active and faithful servant in the vineyard. He was much beloved by his parishioners, heard with attention and treated with respect, and died much lamented. His life and conversation were such as to leave a lasting impression."1
Two of his sons entered the ministry. The Rev. Charles Jarvis Todd was for many years a missionary in Illinois, where he died in 1859. The Rev. Ambrose Seymour Todd spent two years as rector of Christ Church, Redding, and St. James' Church, Danbury, and then became the honored and beloved rector of St. John's Church, Stamford, for nearly forty years. He died in 1861.
THE REVEREND GEORGE OGILVIE, M.A.
George, a son of the Rev. John and Catharine (Symes) Ogilvie, was born at Albany, New York, in 1758. His father, probably the most finished pulpit orator in the Colonial Church, was then the incumbent of St. Peter's Church, Albany, and missionary to the Mohawk Indians. Dr. Ogilvie in 1764 became an assistant minister of Trinity Church, New York City. His son George was very carefully educated at home and in the best schools of the city. He was graduated from King's College (now Columbia University), of which his father was a governor, in 1774.
Great responsibility came to him at this early age, for his father died suddenly of apoplexy on November 26, 1774.
During the Revolution, like many others in the City of New York, it is said that he joined the Royal American Regiment of Colonel Edmund Fanning and became a commissioned officer. It is traditional that at the close of the war he went to England, but his visit could not have been a long one, as he was living in Newark, New Jersey, in 1785, and studying theology under the Rev. Dr. Uzal Ogden, Rector of Trinity Church, Newark. At the second Convention of the Diocese of New Jersey, which was held in St. Peter's Church, Perth Amboy, on May 16, 1785, Mr. Ogilvie was a lay delegate.
1 P. 374, The Churchman's Magazine, September and October, 1809, Vol. 6, No. 5.
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At the first ordination held by Bishop Provoost on July 15, 1787, in St. George's Chapel, New York City, Mr. Ogilvie was made deacon at the same time with Mr. Joseph Grove John Bend and Mr. Richard Channing Moore. Mr. Ogilvie became minister of Christ Church, New Brunswick, New Jersey, soon after his ordination. He was a good reader of the service and a preacher of marked originality. He had a pleasant manner, and in person is said to have resembled his father, who was a large, portly man with a highly intellectual countenance.
St. Paul's Church, Norwalk, Connecticut, to its very sincere regret, had accepted the resignation of the Rev. Dr. John Bowden, whose health required a total cessation from work, in the summer of 1789. At the termination of a six months' engagement with the Rev. David Foote in May, 1790, Mr. Ogilvie was invited to the rectorship. Upon his arrival in that pleasant shore town he found some of the congregation who still recalled with pleasure the brief term forty years before when Dr. John Ogilvie had officiated. Mr. Ogilvie was energetic and industrious. The congregation generously seconded his plans for the improvement and completion of the church edifice, which had taken the place of the one burned by the British during the Revolution, and which had been conse- crated by Bishop Seabury in 1786, on the first occasion when the office of consecration was used in the United States.
The six years spent by him in this parish were pleasant and profitable to both priest and people.
Mr. Ogilvie resigned the rectorship of St. Paul's in October, 1796. It was accepted by the Vestry with expressions of unqualified respect and appreciation.
Upon October 26, 1796, a call was extended by the Vestry of Christ Church, Rye, Westchester County, New York. This was one of the most ancient parishes in that diocese and had been served by many strong and eminent men, among them the Rev. George Muirson, the first clergy- man of the Church who held regularly services in the Colony of Con- necticut.
Mr. Ogilvie assumed his new duties in the fall of 1796 and was rapidly gaining the affection of his parishioners when, after a brief illness, he died on April 3, 1797, in the fortieth year of his age and the tenth of his ministry. He was buried in the plot reserved in the old cemetery of the parish for its rectors and sincerely mourned by all his friends.
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Note V
The adjourned session of the General Convention of 1789 met in Christ Church, Philadelphia, on Tuesday, September 29, 1789, the feast of St. Michael and All Angels. As there was no quorum present, the Conven- tion adjourned until Wednesday, September 30, when the representatives of the Church in New England, Bishop Seabury, Dr. Parker, Mr. Hubbard and Mr. Jarvis, were cordially welcomed.
The Rt. Rev. Dr. White of Pennsylvania presided, ex officio.
The testimonials of the New England deputation were read and "deemed satisfactory."
Bishop Seabury then "produced his letters of consecration to the holy office of a Bishop in this Church," which after being read were ordered to be recorded.
A resolution to go into committee of the whole on the subject of the proposed union with the Churches in the States of New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Connecticut, as now represented in the Convention, was then unanimously adopted.
On Thursday, October I, the Committee of the Whole sat with the Rev. Dr. Robert Smith of Charleston, South Carolina, in the chair.
The discussion was long but without bitterness. Bishop White had some apprehension that political considerations might enter into the debate, as several of the lay deputies were ardent patriots and held high positions in the State and nation. There was still a feeling of bitterness toward all who had sympathized with England. Bishop Seabury had not only given his sympathy, but had ably argued in pamphlets the cause of a United British Empire. He had also served as chaplain to the Royal American Regiment of Colonel Edmund Fanning and received from the British Government a half-pay pension. The scruples of some who approached Bishop White with this objection to his eligibility to sit in the Convention were met by that wise and amiable prelate with the state- ment that Bishop Seabury received his pension for past and not present or future services; that it was no bar to his being a citizen of Con- necticut, with all its rights and privileges, and that he or any other citizen of that State similarly circumstanced could be returned as a member of Congress. This satisfied them and no objection on that score was raised in the Convention.1
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