USA > Connecticut > The records of convocation, 1790-1848 > Part 9
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He went immediately after to Middletown to officiate as lay reader in Christ Church. He also pursued by himself a course in theology, pre- sumably set forth for him by the learned Dr. Samuel Johnson.
About 1762 it becoming necessary to leave his work to be inoculated for the small pox, he resided for several months at Elizabeth Town, New Jersey, in the family of the Rev. Dr. Thomas Bradbury Chandler, the well-read theologian and acute pleader for an American Episcopate. Under him he probably completed his course in theology.
In the fall of 1763, in company with his intimate friend, Bela Hubbard, and William Walter of Roxbury, Massachusetts, he sailed for England
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to seek holy orders. His expenses were defrayed by a subscription of the members of the Middletown parish. He was made deacon in "the royal Chapel of St. James, Westminster," on Sunday, February 5, 1764, by the Rt. Rev. Frederick Keppel, Bishop of Exeter.
He was ordained priest in "the parish Church of St. James, West- minster," on Sunday, February 19, 1764, by the Rt. Rev. Charles Lyttle- ton, Bishop of Carlisle.
Both of these ordinations, at which his companions also were ordained, were by special commission from the aged and feeble Bishop of London, Dr. Richard Osbaldiston, who, as had his predecessors, exercised jurisdic- tion over the American Colonies. He sailed for America in April and was again at work in June. He had been duly chosen as Rector of Christ Church, Middletown. An annual salary of seventy pounds ster- ling was pledged to him by the parish. For some reason not now to be ascertained, the Venerable Society declined to continue the stipend of twenty pounds which had been allowed to the Rev. Ichabod Camp, the first Rector and Missionary. Mr. Jarvis became a true pastor not only for the people in Middletown, but in all the surrounding country. He greatly encouraged the small band of churchmen in Hartford by his presence, his services and his advice. There would have been rapid growth in Hartford had the suggestion to make Middletown and Hart- ford a mission under Mr. Jarvis met with the approval of the authorities in England.
His energy and success as a parish priest are shown by a memorandum made a few years after his ordination, in which three hundred and sixty- five souls, of whom one hundred and fifty were communicants, are recorded as under his charge. The esteem in which Mr. Jarvis was held by his brethren and the active part he took in the organization of the Church in Connecticut, his wisdom and prudence in all the steps taken for a true General Convention, are detailed in the introduction to these "Records."
With the continued regard and affection of his parishioners he served them in holy things for thirty-five years.
Upon the death of Bishop Seabury, at the special Convention held in Trinity Church, New Haven, on May 5, 1796, he was chosen Bishop. As there had been a diversity of opinion among the clergy and some opposi- tion by prominent laymen, he immediately declined the election.
When Dr. Bowden, who in October, 1796, had been elected, finally declined the Episcopate, Mr. Jarvis was unanimously elected for the third time, by his brethren at the annual convention held in St. James's Church, Derby, on June 7, 1797. He accepted and was consecrated in Trinity Church, New Haven, on the feast of St. Luke, October 18, 1797. The sermon was preached by the Rev. Dr. William Smith, of St. Paul's Church, Norwalk. It is one of the five instances in the history of the American Church when the sermon at the consecration of a Bishop has been by a priest.1
1The others are : The Rev. Dr. William Smith, Provost of the University of Pennsylvania, preached at the consecration of Dr. Claggett, 1792 : Dr. Robert Smith, 1795; and Dr. Bass, 1797. The Rev. Dr. Frederick Beasley preached at the consecration of Mr. Chase in 1819.
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The consecrators were the presiding Bishop, Dr. William White, and the Bishop of New York (Dr. Provoost), and the Bishop of Massachu- setts (Dr. Bass). Yale College conferred on him, in 1797, the degree of Doctor in Divinity.
The second Bishop of Connecticut was faithful in his administration of the Diocese and saw a moderate but real growth. During his later years he was afflicted with asthma and any clerical duty was done with difficulty, but he never allowed his bodily infirmity to interfere with his official and religious obligations. In 1799 he removed to Cheshire, where the Episcopal Academy, under Dr. Bowden, was coming into favorable knowledge of the people.
The "Records" give particulars of the unhappy incident of his Epis- copate, the career of Ammi Rogers in the Diocese, and other events of diocesan life in which the Bishop took an active part.
In 1803 Bishop Jarvis removed to New Haven, where he passed the remainder of his days.
He departed this life at New Haven on May 3, 1813, having lived nearly seventy-four years.
When the present Trinity Church was erected his body was removed from the public cemetery and buried beneath the chancel. An elegant Gothic monument with a classic and affectionate Latin inscription written by his son, the distinguished scholar, Dr. Samuel Farmar Jarvis, adorns the walls of the Church.
THE REVEREND GIDEON BOSTWICK, M.A.
Gideon, the fifth son and eighth child of Captain Nathaniel and Esther (Hitchcock) Bostwick, was born in New Milford, Connecticut, on Sep- tember 21, 1742. He was strictly brought up in the pious ways of the "Standing Order." He was educated principally at home and then fitted for college by the celebrated Nathaniel Taylor, the Congregational minis- ter of New Milford. He entered Yale College in 1758, sustained a high rank throughout his course and graduated with honor in 1762. He had, under the influence of an intimate friend and classmate, "declared" for the Church of England. As then there was little prospect of a new mis- sion being erected in any part of New England by the Venerable Society, he went, at the suggestion of the Rev. Thomas Davies, Rector of St. John's, New Milford, and an ardent missionary, to Great Barrington, Massachusetts. A small and vigorous parish had been founded there under the auspices of the Rev. Solomon Palmer and the Rev. Thomas Davies. Mr. Bostwick became the lay reader and opened a classical school, which from the first was successful. The young candidate was not content with merely reading the service on Sunday, but did such pastoral work as a layman could, and went into the surrounding country to seek out the lost or strayed sheep of Christ.
In 1769 such strength had been developed that it seemed expedient to the clergy of Connecticut, with which the work had always been con- nected, to make an effort to obtain a grant from the Venerable Society
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and the erection by it of a mission to include Great Barrington and Lanesborough in Berkshire County, together with Nobletown and New Concord on the New York side of the Berkshire Hills, in what was aptly called "a wilderness country."
A petition from the four congregations was prepared and universally signed, asking for recognition by the Society, a stipend, and the ordina- tion of Mr. Bostwick. With this and a commendatory letter from the clergy of New York, Mr. Bostwick went to England late in 1769. He was successful in his quest. The Society broke its rule, erected the Berk- shire Mission, assigned to it a stipend of twenty-five pounds sterling per annum and appointed Mr. Bostwick the Missionary upon his ordination. After due examination he was made deacon by the Bishop of Lon- don, the Rt. Rev. Dr. Richard Terrick, on St. Matthias' Day, February 24, 1770, in the royal Chapel of St. James. He was ordained priest by the same Bishop on Sunday, March II, 1770, "in the Chapel Royal at Saint James's Palace in Westminster."1
After a pleasant passage of six weeks, he arrived at New York on May 29, and reached his mission on June 4.
From that day he was abundant in labors laying foundations to be afterward built upon. He made a house to house visitation in the newly settled towns of what is now Columbia County, New York, Bennington County, Vermont, and Berkshire County, Massachusetts. For the earlier years of his ministry his services were almost daily. His letters show him to be active, diligent, and discerning. His influence over those who had moved into this northern portion of New England after the old French war was very great. His private register records in his ministry of twenty-three years the baptism of two thousand two hundred and seventy- four children and eighty-one adults, the marriage of one hundred and twenty-seven couples and the burials of eighty-four persons. There is hardly another record equal to it in the missionary annals of our coun- try. The "Records" show that Mr. Bostwick was honored in the Dio- cese. Much of his work was ephemeral for many promising settlements never attained maturity, but enough remains to keep green the memory of a true herald of the Cross, notably St. James's, Great Barrington, Trinity, Lenox, and Christ Church, Hudson, New York. Upon his return from the Convocation and Convention at Middletown on June 5, 1793, where he had presented his friend and lay reader at Lanesborough, Mr. Daniel Burhans, for ordination, he rode a hard-trotting horse. When he arrived at his old home in New Milford, he was taken violently and dangerously ill as the result. After lingering in much pain for some days, he entered into the rest of Paradise on June 13, 1793, in the fifty-first year of his age. Over his grave in the lower cemetery at Great Barrington, friends erected a handsome marble monument appropriately inscribed.
1 Mr. Bostwick's letter of Orders as priest is in the custody of the writer.
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THE REVEREND JAMES SAYRE, M.A.
James Sayre is supposed to have been born in Scotland in 1745. He is said to have come to America with his older brother John, while a boy.
He studied at the College of Philadelphia when that institution was under the presidency of Dr. William Smith. He was graduated in 1765 in the same class with Bishop White.
Removing to New York City, he studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1771. His brother John had been ordained in 1768 and taken ยท charge of an extensive mission on the west bank of the Hudson, which included Newburgh, New Windsor, and Walden. He was laborious and successful. It was possibly through his persuasion and influence that Mr. Sayre abandoned the law and sailed in the summer of 1774 for England. He was ordained in the fall of that year and was licensed to officiate in the Plantations on September 21, 1774.
A manuscript note on the margin of the Book of Licenses of the Diocese of London assigns him to "Fredericksburgh precinct." This . term evidently indicates the region bordering on Connecticut east of Poughkeepsie, Peekskill, Fishkill, and other towns on the east bank of the Hudson. It was sparsely settled and spiritually destitute.
There had been intermittent church work in the river towns from 1765, when the Rev. Samuel Seabury made a missionary tour and held the first services. The Rev. John Beardsley became, in 1761, the missionary in Dutchess County, and in 1766 was promoted to the rector- ship of Poughkeepsie. Probably it was to assist him by caring for the "back country," as Mr. Beardsley's work was over a wide area, that Mr. Sayre was ordained.
The commencement of actual hostilities with England taking place soon after his return, it is extremely doubtful if he remained long in the precinct.
In 1775 he accepted a commission as chaplain to one of the loyalist battalions raised by Colonel De Lancey. Camp life and the monotony of service in and near the city of New York, to which the British were principally confined, was irksome. His power as a preacher was acknowl- edged by all who heard him and his reading of the service was impres- sive and solemn.
He felt that it was a great relief to be asked to officiate for the few churchmen at Brooklyn Ferry, then a hamlet of about sixty houses and less than two thousand people. Previously they had traveled the long distance to Grace Church, Jamaica, or crossed the East River to worship in Trinity Church or one of its chapels.
Mr. Sayre commenced his work in Brooklyn in 1778 and continued it for five years. His success in the little village, now part of a great city, can only be inferred from the fact that in 1787 a parish was organized.
The archives of St. Ann's, the mother parish of Brooklyn, contain the record of only one official act of Mr. Sayre. It is a copy of a baptismal certificate dated August 20, 1783, and signed
"James Sayre, Minister of the Church at Brooklyn Ferry."
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Upon the evacuation of New York City by the British on November 25, 1783, Mr. Sayre, with many other loyalists, went under the escort of the fleet to St. John, New Brunswick. Here a tract of land had been assigned him. He does not appear to have had any settled congregation or sought any parish. He evidently was not placed on the list of the Venerable Society's missionaries and the poor refugees were unable to give adequate salaries to their ministers.
After an experience not altogether pleasant, he returned to the United States and seems to have been in Connecticut in the spring of 1784. In June, 1784, he became the minister of Trinity Church, Branford, Christ Church, Guilford, and St. John's, North Guilford. He resided in Bran- ford, giving three-quarters of his time to Branford and Guilford and the other quarter to North Guilford. He was both active and popular. In the following year efforts were made to induce him to live in Guilford, but without success. He resigned in the spring of 1786 and went to live in Fairfield, where the Rev. Philo Shelton was Rector.
In July, 1786, Bishop Seabury recommended him to the vestry of Trinity Church, Newport, one of the important parishes of New England, as "a worthy and prudent man," of "good understanding" who "reads prayers much to my satisfaction."
Mr. Sayre accepted the invitation to visit Newport sent during the summer and removed to that town in October, 1786.
For nearly a year he was beloved and respected by all his parishioners. An unhappy conflict with some of the prominent laymen in the parish then occurred, principally concerning the revision of the Prayer Book, and for two years there was bitter controversy and mutual discontent. Finally, by the intervention of Bishop Seabury, the pastoral relation was dissolved and Mr. Sayre returned to Fairfield in the early days of 1789.
The parish at Stratford became vacant by the resignation of Mr. Leaming in 1790. Its members esteemed Mr. Sayre highly and had endeavored to have him visit them during the Revolution, but permission was refused by the civil authority. They were now glad to call him as their rector. His services were peculiarly acceptable to them and they gave him a loyal and sincere support.
The fixed conviction of Mr. Sayre that the revision of the Prayer Book at Philadelphia was unnecessary and deprived it of essential features ; that laymen should never have any influence or authority in the Church, or sit in ecclesiastical conventions, he so strongly impressed upon the people of Christ Church that they determined never to use the new book or to approve the union of the Church in the United States.
The text of the "Records" shows the serious and unpleasant conse- quences of this course.
The Rev. John Bowden was then living in Stratford. He had the cordial good will and respect of the churchmen of the parish. With the desire of convincing them of their error and leading them to see the absurdity of their position, he wrote in March, 1792, an affectionate and logical "Address" and a "Letter" to Mr. Sayre.1 His letter to Mr. Sayre
1 An Address from John Bowden, A.M. to the Members of the Episcopal Church in Stratford, to which is added a Letter to the Rev. Mr. James Sayre. * * New Haven : Printed by T. and S. Green. n. d. 12mo, pp. 39.
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rehearses the manner in which Mr. Bowden was welcomed by Mr. Sayre, and their pleasant relations until Mr. Sayre made his "Protest."
The change that then occurred is noted, Mr. Sayre's abuse of his brethren mentioned, and he is asked to reconsider and pause before lead- ing "a congregation into a separation that must in a few years end in their ruin."
The effect of the "Address" upon the parish was slowly apparent and Mr. Sayre was compelled to resign at Easter, 1793. He removed to Woodbury and became the rector of St. Paul's Church. Here again he aroused the people of that staid old parish to open defiance of the whole Diocese and refusal to submit to the constituted authorities. But in July, 1794, Woodbury conformed and Mr. Sayre was once more obliged to leave his home. He spent the remainder of his days in Fairfield. It is said that he continued to denounce bitterly the Bishop and clergy, finally renouncing the Church of his fathers. He died in 1798, in the fifty-third year of his age. It was learned after his death, that he had been for some years mentally unbalanced.
His life is a sad instance of perverted energy and misdirected zeal.
THE REVEREND PHILO SHELTON, M.A.
Philo, a son of Samuel Shelton, was born in Ripton (now Hunt- ington), Connecticut, on May 5, 1754. His ancestors had been church- men in the days when it meant persecution and much personal abuse. His grandfather, Daniel Shelton, a pioneer of the town and a large land owner, had been one of the founders and benefactors of St. Paul's Church in that village.
Mr. Shelton was carefully trained in the ways of the Church. He attended the district school, where only a slight knowledge of the rudi- ments of education could be obtained. He also came under the instruc- tion of his pastor, the Rev. Christopher Newton, aand when seventeen years old was ready for college. He was graduated with honor from Yale College in 1775.
He had early determined to study for the holy ministry. His son, the Rev. Dr. William Shelton, states that his theological course was pursued with the Rev. James Scovill, Rector of St. John's, Waterbury, a man of excellent attainments and sound judgment. The condition of Con- necticut during the Revolution did not allow any new church work to be undertaken.
As noted in the "Introduction," several clergymen were able to keep open their churches.
It is probable that Mr. Shelton while with Mr. Scovill aided him as lay reader in his widely extended parish, which included Waterbury, Westbury (now Watertown), Northbury (now Plymouth), and New Cambridge (now Bristol). On July 8, 1779, Fairfield was burned by the British under General Tryon, when the church, rectory, meeting houses, and many dwellings were destroyed. The minister of Trinity Church,
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the Rev. John Sayre, with his family, lost everything and became a refugee in New York.
On August 24, 1779, a meeting of members of the parish was held at the house of Mr. John Sherwood at Greenfield.
It was resolved "to apply to Mr. Shelton at Ripton in order to hire him to officiate for them if Mr. Shelton will please to come."
A regular routine for the three sections of the parish, Fairfield, Strat- field (now Bridgeport), and North Fairfield (now Weston), was made out. Mr. Shelton accepted and for six years faithfully read the service according to the routine, visited the people in every part of the parish and accumulated much experience for his future ministry.
With several other Connecticut candidates, Mr. Shelton patiently waited for the return of the Bishop-designate invested with the Episcopal character.
On August 3, 1785, he was presented in Christ Church, Middletown, to "Samuel, Bishop of Connecticut," to be made deacon. The others ordained at this memorable first ordination by a Bishop of the American Church were: Ashbel Baldwin, of Litchfield; Henry Van Dyck, of Mil- ford, and Colin Ferguson, of Maryland. The evidence of these "Records" and the tradition of Mr. Shelton's descendants and the older clergy of the Diocese show that he was the first deacon ordained in the Church in the United States. Mr. Shelton was ordained priest by Bishop Seabury in Trinity Church, New Haven, on September 16, 1785.
Upon his return home, he entered upon the rectorship of the parish he had served as lay reader. His incumbency continued throughout his life.
The work done by him was large and encouraging.
His "Parochiales Notitiae" show that in the forty years of his ministry he baptized nineteen hundred and seventy-eight persons, four hundred and fifty-four persons were confirmed, five hundred and eighty persons had become communicants, and eight hundred and thirty-eight persons had been buried.1
New churches were built in Fairfield in 1790, and in the borough of Bridgeport in 1801. Mr. Shelton paid much attention to developing the Church in the new borough, which was rapidly filling up with an intel- ligent population. He was, however, zealous in maintaining the work in the other portions of the parish.
At Easter, 1824, as he felt the growing infirmities of age, he resigned the charge of St. John's, Bridgeport, and confined his attention to Fair- field. Mr. Shelton died on February 27, 1825, in the seventy-first year of his age. He was buried under the chancel of Trinity Church on Mill Plain, Fairfield. A tablet to his memory was placed in the church.
Subsequently his body was removed to Mountain Grove Cemetery, Bridgeport, where an elaborate monument of Italian marble suitably inscribed has been erected.
1 The Rev. Dr. Guilbert in his " Annals of an Old Parish" (New York : T. Whittaker, 1898) has printed this valuable document as Appendix I., pp. 183-273. The original is in the possession of Mr. Hamilton Shelton of Bridgeport.
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Few clergymen were more beloved, honored and trusted. He held many responsible offices in the gift of the Convention and of the Con- vocation. He was almost continuously from 1795 a member of the Standing Committee, and from 1801 a deputy to the General Convention. During the vacancy in the Episcopate from 1813-1816, he as senior presbyter presided in the Diocesan Convention. In a letter to Mrs. Shelton, Bishop Brownell gives this estimate of his character: "I feel that I have lost one of my best friends and counsellors, and that the Diocese has lost one of its best patterns of ministerial faithfulness and Christian simplicity."
THE REVEREND ASHBEL BALDWIN, M.A.
Ashbel, a son of Isaac Baldwin, was born in Litchfield, Connecticut, on March 7, 1757.
His father, a graduate of Yale in 1735, had commenced life as licentiate for the Congregational ministry and preached for some time in that portion of Litchfield County now the town of Washington. He abandoned the ministry for farming and became a useful and public spirited citizen of Litchfield.
Mr. Baldwin sent two of his sons to Yale College after they had been prepared in the common schools and under his own direction. Isaac, the elder, was graduated in 1774, and Ashbel, the younger, in 1776. Both achieved distinction in their classes.
It was in the early days of the Revolution and Litchfield County was thoroughly patriotic. The young graduate with several of his class- mates was eager to enter the army. Circumstances, however, compelled Mr. Ashbel Baldwin to accept a private tutorship, as have many other of Yale's brightest men. He was pleasantly situated in a delightful home in Dutchess County, New York, near the Hudson River. The family were members of the Church of England. It was at that time customary for the tutors in the old colonial families to conduct the family worship, and when the house was remote from church to read the service and a sermon to the household and neighbors. When called upon for this duty, Mr. Baldwin, who had been brought up a strict Congregationalist, was perplexed, for his ignorance of the Prayer Book was profound. A friendly gardener on the place, whom he consulted, made him familiar with the Book. He then read the service with fervor and intelligence. From admiration of the pure English and devotional fervor of the prayers he advanced to a belief in the doctrines expressed in the Prayer Book. By study and examination, he became thoroughly convinced that the Church of England was a pure branch of the Catholic Church of Christ, and conformed to it.
At the close of his tutorship, about 1778, he secured a position as quartermaster in the commissary department of the Connecticut line of the Continental army, and was stationed at Litchfield in charge of a large depot of stores, many of which had been surrendered at Saratoga by General Burgoyne. Much to his regret, he could not engage in active
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service, as imprudence in swimming when a boy had brought on a permanent lameness and shortening of one of his legs.
His studies for the ministry were probably pursued by himself with the advice of his friend and neighbor, the Rev. Richard Clarke of New Milford.
He was in attendance as a spectator at the convocation of the clergy at Woodbury, on the feast of the Annunciation, 1783, when the first Bishop of Connecticut was chosen. During the absence of the incum- bent, the Rev. James Nichols, in some other part of his mission, Mr. Baldwin read the service at Litchfield. When Mr. Nichols removed to Sandgate, Vermont, Mr. Baldwin was invited to take charge as lay reader. A parish by the name of Saint Michael's Church, Litchfield, was incorporated under the state law in October, 1784.
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