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 3
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Although there were a few families who sat uneasy under the Presbyterian form of worship no move was made apparently on
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INTERIOR VIEWS OF THE CHURCH
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the resignation of Mr. Tousey to establish a Church of England beyond the petition we have already noted, and a town meeting was called for July 27, 1724, to take some action on calling a successor to the Rev. Mr. Tousey. It was voted that
"Capt. Thomas Bennett and Mr. Freegrace Adams be appointed mes- sengers in behalf of ye town to go to Stratford to engage Mr. John Beach to preach ye gospel for the space of two or three months."
Mr. Beach proved an acceptable probationer and
"att a lawful Town meeting of ye Inhabitants of Newtown Held Oct. ye 8th 1724 Orderd & Apointd for ye making Choyce of a Gospel Minister in order to Settlement, the Voters were ordered to bring in their votes for ye Man whom they Desired should be their Settled Minister with ye Man's name fairly written on a pece of paper with thr owne names to itt also and Mr. John Beach of Stratford was made Choyce off for to be ye Gospel Minister in Newtown."
Joseph Peck, Clerk.
Mr. Beach received sixty pounds a year salary for the first two years. After that it was to be increased ten pounds per annum till it reached the sum of one hundred pounds, to be paid in money or provisions as they shall pass from man to man. The town also voted to give him his firewood and to build him a two-story house, Mr. Beach to furnish glass and nails.
The town also agreed to give him the improvements of a four- acre home lot during his life and to make over to him one hundred and twenty-three acres of land. All seems to have gone well for the next few years, although there was doubtless more or less of discussion and probably some dissension, since as early as 1722 a few of the inhabitants had petitioned the Church of England for a minister. But great indeed must have been the consternation of the church when their beloved leader announced that he no longer believed in the validity of his ordination and so felt he had no right to administer the sacra- ments of the church.
We can well believe this was no easy matter for Mr. Beach. In those days men were not "driven about by every wind of doc- trine." Decisions were made only after days of fasting and prayer and it was doubtless after long meditation and much con- flict of soul that this decision was reached and declared.
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Let us once more turn to the old records of the town, for they throw more light upon the subject than is to be had from any other source.
A town meeting was called for January 12, 1732 "to consult what was proper to be done with ye Rev. John Beach under ye present difficulties of ye town by sd Mr. Beach, who hath declared himself to be in communion with ye church of Eng- land." This meeting was adjourned to January 19th and then it was
"voted by ye inhabitants above sd to keep a day of solemn fasting and prayer under the present difficult circumstances. Also to call in ye Ecclesiastical Council of ye County of Fairfield to direct and to do what they shall think proper under the present difficult circumstances of ye sd town respecting ye Rev. John Beach and ye inhabitants of Newtown. Also ye first Wednesday of February next is ye day appointed for ye fast. Also voted by ye inhabitants aforesaid that Captain Thomas Tousey, Mr. Peter Hubbell and Mr. John Leavenworth be a committee in ye behalf of ye town to write to ye Reverend Elders of ye above County as above said for their assistance."
The good fathers evidently delighted in town meetings, for another one was called for January 31, when it was
"voted that Captain Thomas Tousey, Captain Thomas Bennitt and Deacon John Botsford be a committee to lay before ye Ecclesiastical Council this week expected here the present difficulties of ye town for that ye Rev. John Beach declareth himself to be partly reconciled to ye Church of England, that he questions the validity of ye Presbyterian ordination, that he cannot in faith, administer the Sacrament and refuseth to administer them, and declares that though there is a possibility, yet not ye least probability that he shall return to us againe upon his former principles, and to beg that ye said venerable Council would conclude and determine for this place with respect to ye premisis as they shall think most regular."
The Council met and dismissed Mr. Beach and he deeded back to the town all the land given to him at the time of his ordination.
Soon after this Mr. Beach sailed for England to receive Orders from the Church of England, and returned in Septem- ber of the same year, 1732. He was appointed by the "Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts" missionary over the towns of Newtown and Redding. Thus we see New- town was once considered a Foreign Missionary Field.
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But to go back a few months in the history of this transaction. It was in January Mr. Beach first made known his change in belief and was released from his charge by the Ecclesiastical Council. On February 7th a little company of like faith with Mr. Beach met and signed their names to the following petition :
"Newtown, Feb. 7, 1732: We whose names are hereunto subscribed do herebye declare that we are desirous that Mr. John Beach may be our minister notwithstanding his declaration for the Church of England and we are jointly willing to await until he shall get a regular ordination by which authority he may administer in faith the holy sacraments & further do hereby declare our protest against the settling or maintaining of another minister, and we will pay our rates to him the aforesd Mr. John Beach Salary as he shall continue to be our minister according to the Law entituled An Act providing how the taxes levied on the pro- fessors of the Church of England for the support of the people shall be disposed of."
So when Mr. Beach returned from England he found a little church of fifteen families awaiting him. Steps were soon taken for providing some kind of a church building. It is said it was raised on a Saturday, the roof boards were put on in the evening and the next day they assembled for worship, sitting on the tim- bers and kneeling on the ground. Under Mr. Beach's fostering care the church grew and flourished and in 1746 a more com- modious building was erected nearly opposite where the New- town Inn now stands.
Mr. Beach remained rector of the church till his death in 1782. He was a staunch supporter of the Crown as well as of the Church and in spite of repeated warnings continued to pray for the King and Royal Family during the Revolutionary War, and of all the clergy in the Colony continued his services unin- terrupted during the entire Revolutionary period.
Trinity Parish has honored his memory by placing upon the walls of its church a tablet commemorating his fifty years of service in the parish, and one of his descendants has further honored his memory in the gift of our beautiful Memorial Library building, surely a fitting monument to his life and work.
But to return to the history of this church. Bereft of its min- ister, the town appointed May II, 1732, for "a day of fasting and prayer. To seek of God a right way for us and ye smiles of his
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countenance upon us and to make application to two or three neighboring elders for assistance in carrying on ye work of sd day."
June 30th a town meeting was held and it was
"Voted, that the voters shall bring in their votes with their names written to their votes, which was done and brought in, and Mr. Elisha Kent was by a fair and clear vote of ye inhabitants of ye town of New- town made choice of for their minister upon ye Presbyterian foundation."
Mr. Kent received for his encouragement all the land quit claimed by Mr. Beach and one hundred, ten pounds a year "provided Mr. Kent shall give good security that if he shall see cause to alter his principles from ye foundation on which he be settled to pay into ye Presbyterian party ye sum of 400 pounds lawful money". It is interesting to note that Capt. Thomas Tousey was chosen agent in behalf of the town to take the bond from Mr. Kent.
Mr. Kent was ordained September 27, 1732. For the next ten years the records are very meager except for one or two votes concerning an increase of salary, which shows the church must have prospered in spite of the division and the organizing of another church in the town. It is also recorded that in 1742 the "Colonial Court of Connecticut voted thirteen pounds out of the Treasurey of the Colony to Rev. Elisha Kent for the instruction and Christianizing of the Indians at a place called Pohtatuck".
In 1742 the church is again plunged into deep distress. Charges of a serious nature are brought against the minister, and early in 1743 he was tried before the Fairfield County East Consociation. The various historians of this church have so far failed to find any very definite charges made against Mr. Kent. If any were made they evidently were not well sustained or were not recorded, for he was dismissed in good and regular standing.
After leaving Newtown Mr. Kent went to South East, N. Y., and remained pastor over the church there till the time of his death in 1776.
Little is known of his family, save that among his descendants are Chief Justice and Chancellor Kent and Elisha Kent Kane, the arctic explorer.
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With the coming of the next pastor we turn from town to church records. The town continued to fix the tax for the minister's salary as late as 1752, but the administration of church affairs was within the church rather than at the town meeting after or about 1743.
March 8, 1743, the Society met at the North school house "So to make choice of a committee in our desolate State to take all proper measures in order for procuring some suitable person upon probation to supply ye pulpit in this place for a season, in order for ye settlement, if to ye good choice of sd society, sd committee so to proceed from time to time as there shall be occasion until sd society shall be satisfactorially supplied even to settlement."
The church quickly made choice of a new minister in the Rev. David Judson of Stratford, and a committee was appointed "to send forth letters of request to ye neighboring churches ... to attend ye solemn affair of ye ordination of ye Worthy Mr. David Judson to ye pastoral office in and over this society and church ... and that a day of fasting and prayer be sol- emnly attended by this society on ye first Wednesday of September next, to implore ye Divine blessing in that great affair, and that ye help of ye Rev. Mr. Graham and Mr. Judd be sought on that occasion."
One of the first things accomplished in Mr. Judson's pastorate was the repairing of the meeting house. December 9, 1745, it was "voted that we will proceed so far in ye finishing of our Publick meeting house as to lay ye gallery floor and erect a fore seet and also ye gallery stairs." Two hundred and thirty pounds, old tenure, was subscribed and it was voted that "it shall be laid out in new shingling sd meeting house, in putting in new window frames and windows of sash glass, in well siding sd house, in well securing and rectifying ye underpinning, in rectifying ye gable ends and in putting in good floor boards, and if sd subscription shall be more than sufficient for doing all ye above sd outside work with glass and nails that what remains shall be laid out on ye inside of ye house. All to be under ye direction of sd committee who are instructed to do what further they shall see to be needful to make it fationable".
One improvement evidently led to the desire for others and a meeting was named for March 13, 1746, "that we may know
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ye minds of sd society respecting our erecting or building a convenient belfry on ye public meeting house of sd society in order for a bell when sd society is able to purchase one."
The church continued to grow in numbers and prosperity and in 1747 it was voted to add thirty pounds, old tenure, to Mr. Judson's salary.
Two years later, April 24, 1749, they laid a tax of twelve pence on the pound, old tenure, for the "further finishing of the meeting house . . . as to ye Galleries and plastering overhead and other work as shall be needful." In 1760 it was "voted that there shall be a steeple built on ye east end of ye meeting house if there shall be money enough signed to build ye same."
Two years more they waited for the long desired bell and then . Capt. Amos Botsford and Mr. Nathaniel Briscoe came forward with the offer that they would "on their own cost and charge procure a good bell of 500 pounds weight fit for to hang in ye steeple of aforesaid society and that it shall be for ye use of sd society so long as there shall be a Presbyterian society to meet in ye above sd meeting house, that is to say if ye above sd society will go on to complete ye sd steeple for ye outside of ye meeting house, culler it and culler ye pulpit."
The steeple was completed and the bell hung sometime during the fall, probably, for at a meeting in January, 1763, Capt. Botsford and Nathaniel Briscoe made open declaration that they "freely and frankly gave ye bell which they had procured for ye use of ye society so long as there should be a Presbyterian society to meet in sd house, and ye society gave them hearty thanks."
At this same meeting it was "voted that Abiel Botsford shall be a Sexton to Ring ye parish Bell at all appointed times and to sweep ye Meeting house 15 times within twelve months and shall have as a reward for ye same ye sum of fifteen shillings."
For some reason the bell did not meet their expectations and it is recorded that sometime in June, 1767, "there was made out by way of signation ye sum of twenty seven pounds, four shillings and seven pence lawful money or provisions . . . and ye committee for ye bell took ye old bell and conveyed it down to Fairfield, got it run and brought up ye new bell and delivered it up and it was hung on ye third day of July, 1767. Always to be understood that ye inhabitants of ye Church of
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England society in Newtown signed of ye above sd moneys and provisions ye sum of five pounds, twelve shillings and seven pence."
The old bell still hangs in the belfry of this church and its iron tongue has called the generations of more than a century to wor- ship in this house, and tolled their knell as they were carried to their last resting place. It bears this inscription: "The gift of Capt. Amos Botsford and Lt. Nath. Brisco, John Witter, fecit 1768."
Right here may be a suitable place to speak of the cock on the weather vane of the steeple. Careful research fails to reveal when it was purchased and placed there. Perhaps I can do no better than to quote from Mr. Johnson's interesting article written some time ago on "Newtown's First Meeting House":
"That it was on the steeple at the time of the Revolutionary war is well known for it bears on its body marks of bullets fired by the soldiers as by order of Gen. Washington they passed through Newtown on their way from Hartford to the Hudson River in 1781." When the old building was torn down to make way for the present structure the weather vane was transferred to it. The Rev. William Mitchel says the scars were made by the bullets of the French troops, fired as a matter of diversion. They undoubtedly were the cause of much grief and indignation at the time. We can well believe the great bird that stands five feet high and measures six feet from tip to tip was the pride of the town and one of its distinguishing features as it is to-day. Quite recently a member of my family received a letter from a gentleman in New York, who in passing through the town observed our weather vane and wished to know about it.
We are rather proud of the bullet holes to-day, for they mark the antiquity of the vane and when, a few years ago, a painter took down the vane to regild it and thought to do us a good turn by filling up the holes, the wrath of a certain member of the com- mittee descended upon his innocent head and he was ordered to take down the venerable bird and punch out the solder.
During Mr. Judson's pastorate there was considerable discus- sion at large over the Saybrook Platform. As early as 1760 Deacon Daniel Booth "resigned his office as deacon in the church, also his Relation as a Brother because he could not as himself declared be easy under ye Calvinastic doctrine as Therein
3
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Taught." Ten years later, in 1770, Mr. Judson "publicly declared that he renounced that part of Saybrook Platform for ye Administration of Church Dicipline as not being in his views in ye main thing therein aimed at agreeable to ye Gospel. And that if ye church choose to take that for their rule of Dicipline and call in a Council in the case impending he would freely resign ye work of ye ministry over them."
A meeting was called and the church voted to stand with their pastor.
Mr. Judson published a number of articles and sermons relat- ing to Church Government and the Platform.
Mr. Judson's pastorate was the longest in the history of the church, covering a period of thirty-three years. Our country was passing through the most critical period of its history dur- ing a part of that time. The Continental troops passing through the town camped on the plain below the village and it is said used one of the churches at least for their barracks. General Putnam's soldiers were freezing and starving in their winter camp in Redding, and the western skies were aflame with the burning of Danbury.
Many of Newtown's citizens were intensely loyal to their "Sovereign and Beloved Lord, King George," but there were also many citizens equally loyal to the Constitution of the new Government, and Newtown sent its full quota to the war.
It is interesting to note that in 1776, the year of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, only three marriages are recorded. Husbands and lovers had marched away to the bat- tle fields while wives and sweethearts bravely carried the double burden of the home as they toiled and waited, waited alas! too often in vain,
"For the touch of a vanished hand,
And the sound of a voice that is still."
Mr. Judson did not live to see the consummation of peace. He died September 24, 1776, at the age of sixty-one, from a disease contracted, it is said, while visiting the soldiers in camp. He was laid to rest in our cemetery beside the little graves of his children, David and Mary, who died in early childhood.
Mr. Judson kept a careful record, now much faded and worn, but one of the priceless relics of this church. He states that
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in 1712 there were about thirty families in the town and in 1770, only a little time before the Revolutionary War began, there were 350 families, about one-half of them belonging to the Church of England. His own congregation numbered over 200 members. From his own records we learn that he officiated at 226 marriages, and 887 baptisms, only eight being adults, which shows how universal was the custom of infant baptism. Thirteen of this number were slave children and there was one Indian ; 378 deaths are recorded. The mortality among the little children makes the heart ache, when one thinks how many fond hopes were so soon hidden in the little graves, and an appalling number of youth under twenty-five died of "a consumption".
When we consider the number added to the church member- ship, the repairs made on the meeting house, the bell and the new inside furnishings, we can readily see that Mr. Judson's long pastorate must have been one of the most successful in the history of the church, and his published works show him to have been a man of no mean intellectual ability.
All through the pastorate of Mr. Judson the name of Caleb Baldwin constantly appears in church and society records, and indeed prior to Mr. Judson's pastorate, for the meeting called for the dismissal of Rev. Mr. Kent is signed by him as clerk. The records show he served as clerk continuously for thirty years. Failing health compelled him to relinquish the office in 1772, and he died soon after, the records say, "with a dropsy aged about seventy years."
I was interested to learn something more of this man who served the church so long and so faithfully, and turning to town records I found he was equally active in civic affairs, for he represented the town in the General Court for five terms between 1750 and 1762, and served as selectman frequently between 1735 and 1765. His son, Caleb, built the house now owned and occupied by Mr. Charles Beardsley, in 1819.
The pulpit was supplied for a time after the death of Mr. Judson. The finances of the society were at a low ebb as they naturally would be with war raging in the land, and it was two years before they were able to pay the arrears in Mr. Judson's salary to his heirs. But dark indeed must have been the despair of the diminished church that led to the passing of the following vote on October 22, 1778, "Voted that the committee appointed
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heretofore to suply the pulpit suply it no more until further orders from this Society."
They were not content, however, that the house of God should remain closed any length of time, and in November a Mr. Camp was hired to preach till the first of April, 1779, and it was voted that "a rate of one penny on the pound in the list of 1777 be Layed in this Society in Silver to be paid by the first of June". It was also voted "that a Rate of six pence on ye pound be Layed also in Continental money to be payed by ye first of May ... to defray the Charges of this Society." This is the first mention of silver or Continental money.
The meeting house was sadly in need of repair by this time, and in October, 1781, a meeting was called at the meeting house "to transact ye business (viz) of assertaining ye Number and Strength of ye Society, of making sale of ye parsonage lot belonging to Sd Society of disposing of ye floor of sd meeting house So much as is sufficient for twelve pews of Repairing Sd meeting house & New painting ye outside of ye same of Remov- ing some difficulties in Sd Society heretofore existing of appoint- ing a Committee to Supply ye Desk for Six months Next Coming of Hiring a master of musick to instruct sd Society in Singing psalms Hims & Spiritual Songs."
In September, 1783, a committee was appointed to procure flax seed to exchange for oil to paint the meeting house.
A number of meetings were held to consider the advisability of disposing of the parsonage lot and it was finally sold in 1784 to discharge the debts of the society.
It was ten years after the death of Mr. Judson before the church was able to settle another minister. Early in 1786 the Rev. Zephaniah H. Smith was installed, but it was an unfortu- nate choice, for Mr. Smith went over to the Sandemanian faith and was the cause of much trouble to the church. He excom- municated those who did not agree with him and tried to break up the church organization and form a Sandemanian church upon the ruins. After four years he removed to Glastonbury, without a formal dismission it is said, and took up the practice of law, leaving the church almost a wreck.
After Mr. Smith left the church had no regular minister for nine years, and only one supply is mentioned, the Rev. Mr. Hill,
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THE PARSONAGE
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although they doubtless maintained a more or less regular preaching service.
In 1792 the meeting house was removed from the center of the street to its present site. This is the recorded vote relating to it:
"May 10, 1792. Voted at sd meeting that to Render it more convenient for the Episcopal Society in Newtown to erect a church or house of publick worship on the ground where the town house now stands we are willing that sd Episcopal Society or any individual of them Remove our meeting house to the west side of the street so that the East End of the Steeple fall in a line drawn from the northeast corner of General John Chandler's dwelling in sd Newtown and the S. E. corner of Josiah Curtisses store provided the same can be done without any Risque, Dam- age or expense to this society and that sd meeting house when removed be put in as good Repair in every Respect as the same now is.
"Voted, that sd meeting house be estimated and valued at Seven hundred pounds Lawful money and that Sufficient Security be taken by this Society's Committee for the payment of the same."
The clerk of the Society failed to record the manner of, or the result of the moving of the meeting house, but fortunately we have resource to other means of information. The moving of so large a building in those days was of more than local interest. In a bound volume of the Connecticut Journal, a weekly news- paper published in New Haven and now preserved in the rooms of the Connecticut Historical Society in Hartford, Mr. Johnson found this interesting item under date of June 6, 1792:
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