USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > Newtown > The story of two centuries, with an account of the celebration of the bicentenary of the Congregational Church of Newtown, Connecticut, October 18, 19 and 20, 1914, 1714-1914 > Part 2
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Mr. Tousey must have come at once and preached "a Sabbath or two," for a month later a committee was appointed
"to discorse & treat with Mr. Thomas Towsee of Weathersfield in order to settle Amongst us to carry on ye work of ye Ministry in this Place. This meeting is adjourned until to-morrow night sun half Anour high from ye date Above."
Accordingly, the next day, while the "sun was yet half an hour high," and after a day spent, doubtless, in putting in their crops, the good fathers gathered, perhaps at the house.of John Glover, to settle upon the terms of payment to Rev. Thomas Tousey, and it was
"voted and agreed to give him thirty pounds in money and also to sow all ye minister's home lott with Wheat that is suitable, Mr. Towsee to have ye crop Provided ye sd Mr. Thomas Towsee preach ye Gospel Amongst us a yeare. The Inhabitants aforesaid at sd meeting further voted and agreed and made Choice of Mr. Thomas Towsee for to preach ye gospel Amongst us for ye space of a year upon Probation in order to settlement."
John Glover Recorder.
The records fail to show whether Mr. Tousey preached here during the summer. He evidently did not decide at once upon accepting the call, for in November of the same year, 1713, a committee was appointed to know
"if Mr Tousey is willing to carry on ye work of ye ministry in this place as long as God shall grant him life and health for ye salary that ye town and he shall agree upon."
December 14, 1713.
"Voted ye inhabitants of Newtown on ye Date above written, Have made and in our place and stead, Put and Empowered our trusty and loving friends Abraham Kimberly, John Glover, Ebenezer Smith, Ebenezer
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Prindle and John Griffin our true and lawful attorneys, agents or trustees for us and in our name to indorse and agree with ye Reverend Mr Tousee respecting his settlement and maintenance so long as he shall continue to carry on ye work of ye ministry in this place or town Afore- said. Ratifying, Allowing and Confirming and holding firm and effectual all, and whatsoever our sd Attorneys or Trustees shall Lawfully do in and About ye Premises as we ourselves had Personally indented and Agreed." Entered verbatim as voted. Attest John Glover, Town Clerk.
The following May, 1714, the town by a vote at the town meeting accepted the agreement made by the committee with Mr. Tousey as to his settlement and salary. All of which points to Mr. Tousey having preached here some of the time at least dur- ing 1713 and a positive agreement was entered into between him and the town to become their minister in 1714.
Dexter's "Yale Biographies and Annals" states that he began preaching in the new settlement in Newtown in May, 1713, and terms of settlement were agreed upon in July, 1714.
The church itself was not formally organized till May, 1715, when the General Assembly authorized the gathering of a church and Mr. Tousey was ordained a few months later, October 15, 1715. There were about thirty families in the settlement at that time.
Soon after Mr. Tousey was settled the town began to take the necessary steps toward building a house for the minister, which was speedily carried to completion. It stood on the ground opposite the Newtown Inn.
The name of Tousey is closely associated with the early his- tory of the Connecticut Colony. Richard Tousey, the grand- father of Newtown's first minister, was one of the pioneer settlers of Wethersfield, and came from the English town of Towsland, Tousley, or Tousey, for these various spellings all appear in the records. Richard Tousey had a son Thomas, from whom the Tousey family in Fairfield County is descended.
Thomas Tousey, Jr., was born in Wethersfield in 1688 and graduated from Yale College in 1707. The Hon. R. D. Smith in the College Courant of October 8, 1868, says he joined the little settlement in Newtown as early as 1709 as teacher and preacher, and it is recorded in the old town records that John Glover bought of Thomas Tousey four acres of land at Half Way River on January 14, 1713/14.
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Of his work as a minister we know but little, although we find several interesting records pertaining to the terms of his salary.
There were some in the church evidently who objected to the first terms of settlement, and the following record shows some- thing of the spirit of this first minister of the church :
"Whereas, In the Engagement of the town of Newtown by their com- mittee to myself for my encouragement and for them In the work of the ministry bearing date July the 27th, 1714, there is in it an article as this expressed in these words: 'And also if by the Providence of God the Reverend Mr Tousey should be disinabled from his work in the min- istry through sickness, infirmity, or age, he is notwithstanding to have his salary of sixty pounds a year yearly during life.' This article being to some distrustful, be it known to all men to whom this present shall come, That I do that is, I the said Tousey do accept the said agreement of the Town as though the above said article had never been mentioned, always reminded that there be never any but confidence on this act of mine as though I did, In such losses as above said cut myself off from the common privileges of ministers of the Gospel, or from reasonable subsidence being administered. In witness whereof I do hereunto set my hand and seal this fifth day of October, Anno Domini 1715."
Thomas Tousey.
In presence of us, Abraham Kimberley, Samuel Beers.
At a town meeting held February 24, 1718, the question of salary came up, when the following vote was passed :
"Voted, Whereas it is concluded Between Mr Tousee and ye selectmen of ye Town of Newtown that for ye greater convenience of paying ye sd Mr Tousee his sallary that the year shall begin with Him as to his min- isteriall work on ye 8th day of March next, and so shall continue year by year. It is concluded yt all yt is behind or remaining due of sd Mr Tousee's sallary from ye first of his ministry to ye 8th of March next, which is 43 pounds, 16 shillings, three pence, shall be Payed by sd Day or with all convenient speed and that ever after ye 8th of March Shall be ye time on or by which ye sd Mr Tousee shall be cleared or that shall be promised therefor."
Thomas Toucey,
Thomas Bennitt,
Joseph Peck, Selectmen.
Attest, Joseph Peck, Town Clerk.
March 7, 1718:
"At ye above sd town meeting the inhabitants aforesaid did consent to, and by their vote confirm ye agreement between ye Reverend Mr Tousee
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and ye selectmen of ye town of Newtown, February 24, 1718, and ordered sd agreement to be recorded."-Attest, Joseph Peck, Town Clerk.
"Whereas, in the articles of agreement between the town of Newtown and myself, particular prices are specified of grain and provisions, I do hereby declare that as to the grain and provisions that I shall receive of the town for the use of my family or for my own necessity or occasion to be improved in this place, that I will receive it at the common and current price that it shall go at in this place of Newtown from man to man and as to what I shall receive over and above what is above mentioned, that I will receive it at the price that it will fetch at the market at the seaside where I shall cause it to be transported. The price of transportation being to be subtracted. That is, that I will give as much here as it shall fetch me at any of the near seaboard towns where I shall carry it, except the charge and expense that I shall be at in con- veying of it down and the loss that I may sustain by shrinkage of grain before such sale or rather at the reception of such grain or provision I will allow how as it will fetch at the same time at the next seaport town or towns excepting the common and usual price of transportation from here thither.
In witness whereof I do hereunto set my hand this 18th day of Novem- ber, A. D. 1718 .- Thomas Toucey."
Joseph Peck, Town Clerk.
In 1721
"for the greater encouragement of ye minister the town voted and agreed by ye Inhabitants aforesaid to get Mr Tousee his fire wood the year 1721 by rate leavied out of ye list of ye estate of ye inhabitants afore sd, at one penny per pound; ye price of a load of wood, walnut wood is to be 2 shillings, 6 pence; a load of oak or other good wood is 2 shillings a load; ye aforesaid is to be carted or sledded by ye last of January or ye first of February next, and if any man shall neglect to give in his account of his wood into ye Collector of ye Wood Rate, Shall by virtue of this vote be as liable to be strained upon for his wood rate, as he yt has got no wood for ye aforesaid Mr Tousee."
"Voted, that Daniel Fort shall be and is appointed collector for to take care of and collect ye above sd wood rate according to vote or as ye law directs for ye gathering of other town rates."
Attest, Joseph Peck, Town Clerk.
So far as we know harmony prevailed in the little flock. The men were busy from sun-up till sun-down clearing away the for- ests, putting in, cultivating, and harvesting their crops, building larger barns and more commodious houses as they were able to do so. The women were equally busy, for in those days there were few articles used in the home that were not made by the women. All the clothing worn by the family, all the carpets,
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curtains and bedding were of home manufacture, and as for any kind of food prepared outside of the home such a thing was not dreamed of for many years to come. But in spite of the strenu- ous life they lived in those early days they found time to be earnest students of the Bible and to train their children in its precepts.
Hollister, in his "History of Connecticut," pays this tribute to the early settlers: "The Bible was the constant companion of the early inhabitants of Connecticut. The emigrant studied it by day and by night. He taught it to his children with the same constancy that supplied them with daily food, and the burden of his prayer was that they might understand it in its deepest and most spiritual significance. The Bible was the polar star of the Colony. Its precepts are written in letters of light upon our early records. Its doctrines were discussed in the field when the laborers bent over the ridges of corn, and in the heart of the great forest, while the woodman sat in the still noon leaning against the trunk of the tree he had felled, he pondered its pre- cepts in secret. It was carried into the battle field by the soldier and with an honest joy, when the victory was won, its promises were read anew. Children were named from its great prophets, poets and heroes."
In 1723 we find the first record of the rift that made discord in the harmony of the little flock. At a town meeting held March 12, it was
"Voted that Capt. Thomas Bennett, Sergt. Peter Hubbell, Saml Beers and Ephraim Peck be a committee in ye behalf of ye town to discors with ye Reverend Mr. Tousee by reason of uneasiness of ye major part of ye inhabitants of sd town, they being willing to pay himself for ye time he has continued in ye work of ye ministry till this Instant and no further, provided he will lay down ye work of ye ministry among us."
Recorded, Joseph Peck, Clerk.
The reason why the early fathers of the church could not "sit easy" under the preaching of Mr. Tousey they failed to record and we can only surmise.
The following extract from "Hawks and Perry's Documentary History of the Protestant Episcopal Church," quoted by Miss Rebecca Donaldson Beach in her history of the Beach and San- ford families, would seem to throw some light on the probable
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cause of the dissension. In one of Mr. Pigott's letters to the Secretary of the Society, written from New York, October 3, 1722, he says: "I shall before Christmas, according to appoint- ment, preach thrice in Fairfield-as often at Newtown-thrice also at Ripton (now Huntington) . . . Nay, Sir, Newtown and Ripton, if not Fairfield, do intend to petition the Honorable Society for Church Ministers." In November he again writes: "The Subscribers of Ripton have been of long standing inclined to the Church-but those of Newtown to a man, have been induced by my means to embrace our profession." In another letter he says of Newtown: "Its inhabitants are about half gone over and Mr. Johnson (Mr. Pigott's successor at Stratford) may expect thirty communicants there."
Under date of October 19, 1722, we find the following petition from "Members of the Church of England at Newtown, Con- necticut, to the Secretary":
"We the subscribers, inhabitants of the Town of Newton (Newtown) in the province of Connecticut, being cordially included to embrace the articles and liturgy of the Church of England, and to approach her communion, do humbly and earnestly request your Honorable Society to send us a lawfully ordained minister. We are heads of families and with dependents shall appear the major party here; therefore we intend to set apart for our episcopal teacher, whensoever it shall please God to inspire your Venerable body to appoint us one, at least two hundred acres of glebe for the support of a church minister forever.
"And this we are emboldened to hope, because our town is at so great a distance from Stratford as twenty-two miles and also situated in the center of all this country, being surrounded with more than ten other towns at no vast distance. We do likewise return our most hearty thanks for that which Mr. Pigott introduced among us, who has inclined us to declare boldly for the Church, & thereby to be exposed to the resentments of the Independents, to his and our, no small disadvantage and reproach; indeed we are placed in the midst of an insidious people, but should quietly enjoy our persuasion without the intervention of others, if an Episcopal minister were once settled among us, which we beg of Almighty God to induce the Honorable Society to nominate; and in the meantime we remain your very humble servants and well wishers.
"John Glover, Ebeneezer Booth, Stephen Parmelee, Samuel Henry, Moses Knapp, Dan'l Jackson, John Seeley of Chestnut Ridge, Jeremiah Turner, Sam'l Mosher, Eliza Sharp, widow, Thomas Wheeler of Wood- bury."
Mr. Tousey relinquished his charge in March, 1724, "sore broken in health and as it may seem refusing recovery," and
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two months later memorialized the General Assembly to secure the receipt of his last year's dues, sixty pounds and firewood.
I should fail in my duty as historian if I did not record some- thing of the later history of this man who filled so large a place in the early affairs of this town, and whose descendants are among its influential and honored residents at the present time.
After Mr. Tousey closed his pastorate over the church it is said he went to England and there received the commission of Captain in the King's army. After his return he took up the practice of medicine in the town and became Newtown's first physician.
An account book now in the possession of one of his descend- ants, Mr. Theron E. Platt, shows that he sold drugs and medi- cines and attended the sick as early as 1737. He also became a large landholder in the town and his name and the name of his wife, Hannah Clark, daughter of Captain Samuel Clark, of Mil- ford, to whom he was married November 12, 1717, appear in many of the early deeds.
Dexter's "Yale Biographies and Annals" (1701-1745) states that his wife's father died in 1725, leaving a large landed estate, but no will: and the eldest son, Samuel Clark, Jr., of Milford appealed to the Superior Court for a reversal of the decree of the New Haven Probate Court (dated February 28, 1726-7) dividing the estate, real as well as personal, according to the old law of the Colony (1699) equally among all the children, except- ing a double portion to the eldest son. Before this appeal was acted upon, a similar appeal made by another party had been carried to England, and unexpectedly sustained by the King in Council, on the ground that the Connecticut statute was con- trary to the law of the realm. The principle involved was important, since the titles to land acquired under the old law would be unsettled if the law was pronounced invalid; and when Samuel Clark, Jr., having compounded with the other co-heirs was unable to overawe Captain Tousey, all the Colony was interested. Clark carried his appeal to England, and in 1742 the General Assembly voted £500 to Captain Tousey for the defense of his suit and instructed the Colony's Agent in London to retain able counsel to assist and defend him. He did not go to England himself, but in July, 1745, an order was finally passed in Council dismissing Clark's petition.
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In 1727 Rev. Thomas Tousey was commissioned by the Gen- eral Assembly as Captain of a train band and from 1728 until his death in 1761, a period of thirty-three years, he was Justice of the Peace.
He was also Newtown's first representative to the General Court, being elected with Mr. John Northrop to that office in 1747. He also represented the town in 1748 and again in 175I.
Tradition says his home was at or near where Mr. Arthur T. Nettleton now resides, and his son Oliver lived at the head of the street.
It will be seen, therefore, that Mr. Tousey became a leading and very useful citizen in the town and those who could not "sit easy" under his preaching nevertheless relied upon his judgment in other matters, and indeed in church matters also, for he often acted as moderator and served on the standing committee of the church.
In 1743 he was appointed to oppose the formation of a new Ecclesiastical Society in Newberry (now Brookfield) and he was selected to fix the boundaries between New Milford and New- town.
When his successor, the Rev. John Beach, declared for the Church of England in 1732, Captain Tousey with Peter Hubbell and John Leavenworth was appointed in behalf of the town to write to the "Reverend Ecclesiastical Council of Fairfield County" for their assistance.
Mr. Tousey died in 1761. A blue slate slab in what is known as the old part of our village cemetery marks his grave and bears the following inscription.
"Here lies interred the Body of Thomas Tousey Esqr who died March 14, 1761 in the 74th Year of his Age. Down to an impartial Grave's devouring shade Sinks Human Honors and the Hoary Head.
Protract your years, acquire what mortals can Here see with deep concern the End of Man."
Captain Tousey left a family of seven daughters and four sons, some of whom settled in Newtown. His great-grandson, Isaac Tousey, became Governor of Connecticut in 1846. In 1850 he was elected United States Senator and served five years, resign-
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ing in 1855 to take a place in President Buchanan's Cabinet as Secretary of the Navy.
It seems proper at this point to consider the meeting house of the early church. The Rev. J. P. Hoyt states in his historical sermon delivered in 1876 that an effort was made as early as 1710 to build a house of worship, but nothing is found in the records until November 23, 1713, when at a town meeting it was voted "that John Glover, James Hard and Ebenezer Smith be a committee to hire workman on ye town's account to build a meet- ing house to serve God in, 40 ft. long and 32 foot between joynts." No further records are found until December, 1717. Why the work was not begun we have no means of knowing nor where Mr. Tousey preached during the early years of his pastorate except for this record in 1714: "Voted to give Josiah Burrit 20 shillings in pay or two-thirds money for meeting in his house on ye Lord's Day from ye Daye until next May ensuing." From this it would seem that there was no public place of meet- ing for a number of years. It probably was all the early settlers could do to keep the wolf from the door and provide homes for their growing families, and so although they formed the church organization and hired a minister they could not build a house of worship at once. But in the winter of 1717-18 the matter again came up, and in the spring of 1718 the Colonial Court, convened at Hartford, came to the aid of the settlers by laying a tax of one penny an acre to be paid yearly for four years.
A few months later Thomas Scidmore came forward with a proposition that led to the calling of a town meeting on Novem- ber 18, and the passing of the following vote :
"Voted, that whereas Thomas Scidmore hath made offer to this town for ye sum of 45 pounds to get and hew all the timber for a meeting house of dimensions as followeth and to frame it workmanlike viz., In length 30 feet, in breadth 36 feet and between joynts 20 feet and also to cover it, the sides with clabbords, and the ruff with short shingles, the town finding nails, and boards to shingle on, and to do all the carting, and whereas the town doth comply with his motion, it is by this meeting voted Mr. John Glover, Mr. Thomas Bennit and Mr. Joseph Peck shall be a committee and shall have full power to concert all matters necessary with sd Scidmore relating to sd work in behalf of ye town."
The location of the meeting house was decided at a town meet- ing held January 8, 1719, when it was
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"Voted and agreed that the Cross Lane or that by John Platt's, or rather when ye lane that runs easterly and westerly intersects ye maine town street or ye street that runs northerly and southerly shall be ye place to set or erect ye meeting house for carrying on ye public worship of God that is already agreed upon to be built."
Joseph Peck, Town Clerk.
The location must have been near the center of the street where the flagpole now stands. Mr. Scidmore received forty- five pounds for the work, about $225. Later it was voted to make an addition of twenty feet, making the entire length of the building fifty feet.
It would be interesting to know when this first rude building was completed and when the first service was held in it. It could have been nothing more than a barn-like structure with lit- tle or no inside furnishings save the benches and perhaps a wide open fireplace into which they rolled the huge logs. But the first service in the new meeting house must have been one of great, if sober rejoicing when, at the beat of the drum, they assembled themselves together in the house of the Lord. There were only the four bare walls and the rude benches, but they were brave and true hearts,-those sturdy ancestors of ours-and they builded even better than they knew, for the New England meeting house has always stood and still stands for all that is best in New England life.
"How beautiful they stand, Those ancient altars of our native land ! Amid their pasture fields and dark green woods, Amid their mountains' cloudy solitudes, Each in its little plot of holy ground, How beautiful they stand, Those old white churches of our native land."
A few more items of interest concerning the meeting house should be recorded before we turn back to the history of the organization and its ministers. At the annual town meeting held December 24, 1733, it was voted:
"Whereas the Worshipfull Mr. Thomas Toucey and ye Reverend Mr. Elisha Kent have petitioned for Liberty to build upon their own charge each of them a pew in ye meeting house in Newtown for ye use of them- selves and families as they shall have occasion, ye one on ye one side of ye
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Great or South Door, and ye other on ye other side thereof, at ye above said meeting voted in ye Affirmative that their petition Be Granted, and it is hereby Granted.
Entered ye date above
Per Joseph Peck Town Clerk."
In 1735 it was voted at a town meeting "that ye Presbyterian society shall as soon as may be erect and set up six fationable pews, three on either side of ye pulpit, and ye tax to defray ye charge of building ye same, if there be money enough, to be paid by ye town, but if not, then ye sd society to defray ye charges of ye above sd pews." It was also voted "that there is liberty to build two pews more, one on ye west side of Mr. Kent's pew and ye other on ye east side of Mr. Tousee's pew so as not to damnify ye gallery stairs."
How had this desire to be "fationable" crept into the little community? Had some of the young folks been on a visit to one of the older settlements and observed their more comfortable and better looking meeting houses and returned home fired with a desire to reform their elders? Or perhaps Madam Bush and her daughters had paid a visit to the old home in New Amster- dam and learned there that benches are "quite behind the times," "all the best people have their own pews." We can only specu- late; we do know, however, that it was a step forward, leading up to the beautiful edifice of to-day, which memory peoples with the faces and forms of those who long since have joined the "choir invisible."
In the early town records we find many references to "Sab- bath Day houses," permission to build them in the highway being given by vote of the town. Cothren, in his history of Ancient Woodbury, says, "The Sabbath Day house was a place in which to take refreshments between the two church services, and for social and religious worship as the occupants might be inclined. It was built in two divisions, one for males and the other for females. Some families would have houses of their own for private use. These houses were necessary because the meeting houses were not warmed."
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