USA > Rhode Island > Washington County > Narragansett > A history of the Episcopal Church in Narragansett, Rhode Island, including a history of other Episcopal churches in the state, Volume III > Part 3
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25
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a place called New-London * and that has given rife to others ; fo that the Society, so often fpoken of, maintain at this Day, and in this Colony, eight Epifcopal Miffionaries, who have the Care of double that Number of Churches, two School- mafters, and one Catechift. As to the Character of the In- dependent Teachers, thofe who have undertaken to draw their Picture, have reprefented them as noted for Enthufi- afm, and thofe affected Infpirations, which for the most part begin in Folly, and often (if not always) end in Vice. Some Pens have diftinguifhed them for a grave Hypocrify, Phlegmatick Stiffnefs, and Sacerdotal Tyranny ; and the Laity, for Formali- ty and Precifenefs, and covering over ill Arts and Acts with a Cloak of Religion. But I think this Picture wears too harfh Features; tho' it muft be owned not to be abfolutely void of Refemblance. Whatever they have been, there are certain- ly many valuable People amongft them; and the Introduction
* To show the agency of Dr. MacSparran in erecting the church at New London, the following letter is transcribed :
DEAR SIR, The church in New London originated in 1725, but under what particular circumstances, does not appear. Dr. MacSparran, however, appears to have had a prominent and influential agency in laying its foun- dation. I have been led to the belief, that he first officiated here according to the forms of the Church of England; but whether by any stated ar- rangement, or only occasionally, I can find no evidence to determine. The earliest entry in our Register, is the copy of a subscription paper, by which the subscribers bind themselves to pay the amount of their several sub- scriptions, to MacSparran, as Treasurer of the fund, for the erection of a church, dated June 6, 1725. Under date of Sept. 27, 1725, is a paper, which seems to be a copy of a voluntary agreement of sundry persons to constitute themselves a committee, for the purpose of erecting a church ; and under the same date, is the appointment by said committee, of Mr. MacSparran as their treasurer. Under date Feb. 25, 1725-6, is a letter from the committee to Mr. MacSparran, requesting him to appoint a sub-treas- urer, and to use his good offices in obtaining assistance for them at New- port, and especially to obtain for them the frame and appurtenances of the old church there, 845 to be brought hither and set up. Then follow sundry letters from him having reference to this business, in one of which he speaks of coming to New London to preach. The last is dated June 14, 1726, and after this I find no mention of him in our books. .
I regret your application had not been made sooner, as there was living here, until a few months since, a venerable lady,892 who was a niece of Dr. MacSparran ; remembered him well, and might have furnished you with some valuable facts. . . . If in any way I can be useful to you in your undertaking, you will please to command my services without cere- mony. R. A. HALLAM
New London, Jan. 10, 1842
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of our Church, and their Intermixture with Europeans, be- gins to give them a better Complexion; and one need not de- fpair of their Improvement, under the prefent Appearances. Tho' I fay this, in this Paragraph dedicated to Connecticut, yet it is with very little Variation applicable to the New-Eng- landers in general: I mean, fuch as are Novanglians, by a firft, fecond, and third Defcent, and downward. This Colony, in its firft Beginnings, and during the Ufurper's Reign, was two diftin&t Jurifdictions, under the Names of the Colony of New- Haven, and that of Say-Brook, so called from the Lords Say and Brook. Charles the Second united thefe in 1663; and, from a large navigable River, that rifes far up in the Inland Country, called it the Colony of Connecticut. The two capital Towns, where the General Affembly alternately fit, are Hart- ford, fituated on the great River, and New-Haven, on the Sound, that feparates Long-Ifland (in New- York Province) from the Main. In the latter of thefe, viz. New-Haven, there is a College of feventy and more Students, with a Prefident, and two or three Fellows. One of the prefent Fellows is a Son of Mr. James Hillboufe ,* who lived near Artekilly, hard by New-
* Respecting Mr. Hillhouse, Miss Mary L. Hillhouse, 893 of Sachem's Wood, New Haven, in a letter to me, has furnished the following information, from memoranda, made by William Hillhouse, Esq., of New Haven, fourth son of the Hon. William Hillhouse, of New London County, and grandson of the Rev. James Hillhouse, while on a visit to his relations in Ireland, in the year 1789.
" John Hillhouse, of Free Hall, in the county of Derry, Ireland, was the son of Abraham Hillhouse, and possessed a landed estate estimated at about two thousand pounds sterling a year. He was the father of Abraham, James, William, Jolin, Samuel, and Charles. Abraham settled in Ireland and inherited the family estate. He was first married to Miss Elizabeth Herron, by whom he had no children, and then to Miss Ann Ferguson, who was the mother of his two children, Abraham James and Rachel.
"Abraham James died unmarried, in London, in the year 1756 ; Rachel married a Mr. McCausland, and her family possessed the estate of Free Hall, or town of Minevenan, and the town of Upper and Lower Main, by means of the jointure of their grandmother, Ann Ferguson, made in 1717, and recorded in 1756. August 28th, 1789, rode out to Free Hall; it is about a mile from Streive, and two miles from Newtown ; went on the Coleraine road, until we came to the narrow lane, that leads to the old mansion house. It had been very large, with pavements, gates, walls, gar- dens, &c., and had been, as I was informed, a fortification ; but is now very much in ruins, and a great part of the house had fallen down. The garden had been laid out with mounds and walks, and we visited a mound, erected by Abraham James Hillhouse, when his father gave an entertain- ment to all the people of the country.
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town-Leamevaddy and the President, Mr. Thomas Clap was
"James Hillhouse, second son of John Hillhouse, was educated at Glas- gow, and emigrated to New England about the year 1720. He published a funeral sermon on the death of his mother. She is styled that eminently pious gentlewoman, Mrs. Rachel Hillhouse, of Free Hall and county Londonderry, Ireland, who died January 7th, 1716. He was a clergy- man, and settled on a landed estate, which he transmitted to his family in the town of Montville, in the County of New London, Connecticut. He married Mary Fitch, granddaughter of the Rev. James Fitch, the first clergyman of Norwich, by his second wife, Priscilla Mason, daughter of Major John Mason, the celebrated commander of the expedition against the Pequots. Mrs. Hillhouse was a woman of superior education and em- inent piety, as her letters to her sons, which are still preserved, afford proof. The Rev. James Hillhouse was installed over the church at Montville, in 1722 ; he died Dec. 15, 1740, aged fifty-three years. Mrs. Hillhouse died O&. 25, 1768. Their children were, William, James Abraham, and Rachel, who died young.
" William, eldest son of James Hillhouse and Mary Fitch, lived and died as a country gentleman, on the portion of his father's estate which fell to him. He was chosen for fifty-three successive years, to represent his dis- trift in the Legislature of the State, and was the Judge Hillhouse to whom you refer in your letter. He was married Nov. Ist, 1750, to Sarah Griswold, sister to the first Governor Griswold, a woman of great excellence. She died March 15, 1777, in the forty-ninth year of her age. Their sons were, John, James, David, William, Samuel, Oliver, and Thomas. William Hill- house lived to the age of eighty-eight, and died, I believe, in the year 18 16.
"James Abraham Hillhouse, the second son of the Rev. James Hillhouse, was born at Montville about 1730. He waseducated at Yale College, and acted as tutor in that institution for several years with great acceptance. He was a distinguished lawyer, and for many years a member of the coun- cil of the State. He died at New Haven, of a slow fever, Oct. 3d, 1775, in the forty-sixth year of his age, deeply and long lamented. He was a member of the Centre Church, New Haven, and eminent, even from his childhood, for his consistent piety. He married Mary Lucas, only daughter of Augustus Lucas and Mary Caner. Mrs. Hillhouse long survived him, and closed a life, dignified by understanding and piety, at the venerable age of eighty-eight years, in the summer of 1821. They had no child, but adopted James, the second son of William Hillhouse, who was received into the family at the age of seven years, and was long known to the public.as treasurer of Yale College, United States Senator, and first commissioner of the Connecticut school fund. Mr. James Hillhouse was twice married : first to Sarah Lloyd, Jan. 1st, 1779, a niece of Dr. James Lloyd, of Boston, who died the same year; second to Rebecca Woolsey, daughter of Col. Melan&thon Taylor Woolsey, of Dosories, Long Island, who died Dec. 29th, 1813. He left two sons, James Abraham Hillhouse, of Sachem's Wood, New Haven, the author of Hadad and other poems, who was born Sept. 26th, 1789, and died Jan. 5th, 1841 ; and Augustus Lucas Hillhouse, for many years a resident of France.
"The late James A. Hillhouse left no son, but his eldest daughter has been recently married to William Hillhouse, M. D., youngest son of Thomas Hillhouse, Albany County, in the State of New York.
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my Scholar,* 895 when I came firft into thefe Parts, and on all Occafions gratefully acknowledges his receiving the firft Ru- diments of his Learning from me, who, by the way, have but a
"Augustus Lucas, the father-in-law of Mr. James A. Hillhouse, was the son of Augustus Lucas, 565 a French Protestant, who fled his country after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, about 1700,824 in company with Mr. Laurens, of South Carolina, who had married hissister. His daugh- ter, Barsheba, was afterwards Madam Johnson, of Newport, distinguished for her literary attainments, and died the wife of Matthew Robinson, E-q. Mrs. Hillhouse had books, belonging to her grandfather, in five or six dif- ferent languages. Mr. Lucas married Barsheba, daughter of Rev. Joseph Eliot, son of the Rev. John Eliot, known as the ' Apostle of the Indians,' she being the mother of his son. It is believed that he was buried in the grave-yard at Newport. Mrs. Lucas, wife of Augustus Lucas the younger, was a sister of the Rev. Henry Caner, 644 for thirty years rector of King's Chapel, Boston. Both she and Madam Caner lived many years, and both died in the family of the Hon. James Abraham Hillhouse, one at the age of eighty-four and the other eighty-nine."
Rev. Joseph Eliot, before mentioned, married Sarah, daughter of Gov- ernor William Brenton, and through her Mary Lucas (afterwards Hill- house) inherited various tracts of land in Narragansett.
* Thomas Clap was the son of Stephen, and grandson of Thomas Clap, who migrated to New England with the early settlers, between 1630 and 1639, and settled in Scituate, Massachusetts, in 1640. Thomas Clap, the son of Stephen, was born in Scituate in 1703, and graduated at Harvard in 1722. He was one of the most distinguished men of his time. He was ordained at Windham, Connecticut, in 1726, and settled over the church there. He was chosen president of Yale College in 1740, and continued in the chair until 1764, when he resigned; and, on a visit in Scituate in 1765, he died.
President Stiles, his successor, speaks of him as standing in the first ranks of the learned men of his age. "He studied," says he, "the higher branches of mathematics, and was one of the first philosophers America has produced, and equalled by no man except Professor Winthrop. As a theologian, he stood very high ; as president of the college, he was inde- fatigable and very successful in promoting the interests of learning and raising the reputation of the college. He was the means of building the college edifice and chapel, and gave frequent public dissertations in the various departments of learning. Mr. Clap constructed the first orrery, or planetarium, in America. He also made a collection of materials for a his- tory of Connecticut, He wrote many books, or rather pamphlets, in de- fence of the New England churches in Whitefield's time, from 1734 to 1755. That he was a powerful opponent to Whitefield, and did much to counteract his disorganizing measures, one can easily understand, when, in looking over the pamphlets, we find him quoting Whitefield's own words, and declaring himself ready to testify to the correctness of his quo- tation, viz .: 'I intend to turn the generality of the ministers of the country out of their pulpits (who are half beasts and half devils), and bring over ministers from England."" Mr. Clap also wrote a valuable history of Yale College.
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Modicum to boaft of myfelf. Connecticut is a Colony remarkable for Induftry, and a tolerably good Soil; and no Place this way can boaft of larger Exportations, in proportion to its Extent and Inhabitants. Lumber, fo far as that means Barrel and Hogfhead Staves and Heading, Hoops, Clift-boards and Shingles of Cedar, are fhipped off here in great Quantities; and the Mar- kets in the other Main-land Provinces, as well as our IVeft- India Iflands, owe a good deal of their Supply to the Butter, Beef, Mutton, Pork, Indian Corn, and Wheat, of this Colony.
Travelling Eaftward, the next Region that rifes to View is the little Colony of Rhode-Ifland, &c. where Providence has fixed me, and where I have refided in Quality of Mit- fionary thirty-one Years laft April. This Colony is bounded Wefterly with Connecticut; Southerly, on the Sea; Eafterly and Northerly, by the large Province of the Mafachufets-Bay, which, running a long way up into the Land, by a South and North line, joins New-York Province; by which means our Communication and Connecticut's, landward, is cut off, and both Colonies ftaked down to fixed and determined Bounds. This little Diftrict extends itfelf to no more than about forty Miles in length, and thirty in breadth, or it may be forty (for I write to you, Sir, from Memory only). It contains 1,024,000 Acres, and is peopled with about 30,000 Inhabit- ants, young and old, white and black. It was firft purchafed, for lefs than the Value of 50/. Sterling, of an Indian Em- peror, named Miantinomy, and other inferior Sachems, his tributary Princes; and peopled by Refugees from the Mafa- chufets Colony, in 1637. By a Letter dated from on board the Ship Arabella, in Plymouth-Harbour, in England, begging the Prayers and Bleffings of the Bifhops and Clergy of Eng- land, thefe Maffachufet Puritans difclaim any Defign of fepa- rating from the Church of England; avowing their Intention to be only a feceffion, in point of Place, but no Departure from Doctrine or Worfhip .* Notwithftanding that Pretence,
* "In contrast with the current hostility to the Church in England and in this country, we may place the following historical evidence of the views with which some of the Puritan emigrants to these shores regarded the English Church. The orthography of the letter is not uniform. An accu- rate transcript is here presented, and may be new to many." (Hutchinson.) "1630. The Arbella, on board which the Governor and several of the assistants, left Yarmouth, between the 7th and 10th of April. On the 7th, the Governor, and divers others on board, signed a paper directed to their
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they were no fooner fettled in their new Habitation, than their old unopened Purpofes appeared ; the Common-Prayer
brethren of the Church of England, to remove suspicions, or misconstruc- tions, and to ask their prayers, The paper has occasioned a dispute, whether the first settlers of Massachusetts were of the Church of England or not. However problematical it may be what they were while they remained in England, they left no room for doubt after they arrived in America.
'The humble Request of his Majeflies loyall Subjects, the Governour and the Company late gone for New-England; to the rest of' their Brethren in and of the Church of England.
' Reverend FATHERS and BRETHREN,
' THE generall rumour of this folemne enterprife, wherein ourfelves with others, through the providence of the Alinightie, are engaged, as it may fpare us the labour of imparting our occafion unto you, fo it gives us the more in- couragement to ftrengthen ourfelves by the procurement of the prayers and bleffings of the Lord's faithful fervants: for which end wee are bold to have recourfe unto you, as thofe whom God hath placed neareft his throne of mercy; which, as it affords you the more opportunitie, fo it impofeth the greater bond upon you to intercede for his people in all their ftraights; we befeech you therefore by the mercies of the LORD JESUS to confider us as your brethren, ftanding in very great need of your helpe, and carnefily im- ploring it, And howfoever your charitie may have met with fome occafion of difcouragement through the mifreport of our intentions, or through the difatfection, or indifcretion, of fome of us, or rather, amongft us; for wee are not of thofe that dreame of perfection in this world; yet we defire you would be pleafed to take notice of the principals, and body of our company, as thofe who efterme it our honour to call the Church of England, from whenve wee rife, our deare mother, and cannot part from our native coun- trie, where the fpecially refideth, without much fadnes of heart, and many tears in our eyes; ever acknowledging that fuch hope and part as we have obtained in the common falvation, wee have received in her bolome, and fuckt it from her breafts; wee leave it not therefore, as loathing that milk wherewith wee were nourifhed there, but, bleffing God for the parentage and education, as members of the fame body, fhall alwayes rejoyce in her good, and unfainedly grieve for any forrow that thall ever betide her, and while we have breath, fyncerely defire and indeavor the continuance and abundance of her welfare, with the inlargement of her bounds in the king- dome of CHRIST JESVS.
'Be pleafed, therefore, Reverend FATHERS & BRETHREN, to helpe for- ward this worke now in hand; which if it profper, you fhall bee the more glorious, howfoever your judgment is with the LORD, and your reward with your GOD. It is an ufuall and laudable exercife of your charity, to recom- mend to the prayers of your congregations the neceffities and ftraights of your private neighbours: do the like for a church fpringing out of your owne bowels. Wee conceive much hope that this remembrance of us, if it be frequent and fervent, will bee a moft profperous gale in our failes, and provide such a paffage and welcome for us, from the GOD of the whole earth, as both we which fhall finde it, and yourfelves, with the reft of our friends, who fhall heare of it, fhall be much inlarged to bring in fuch daily returnes of thanks-givings, as the fpecialties of his providence and goodnes
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was out-voted, and Extempore Prayer, then called the New- Way, was preferred to the old Liturgick Method of Worfhip. From this Time, they who clamoured fo loud againft Perfe- cution, and the Meafures taken in England to exact Con- formity, immediately made a Law, that none fhould be free of their Juridiction, or capable of the Privileges of their new Colony, but fuch as were Members, that is, (in their Senfe) actual Communicants, in their new-modelled Churches. Many Churchmen, and fome Anabaptists who accompanied them in their Embarkation, expecting to meet with no Moleftation on account of their Principles and Way of Worfhip, expreffed their Diff'atisfaction, and refufed Submiffion to this Law, where- upon they were firft disfranchifed, and an actual Sentence of Banifhment pronounced againft them, unlefs they fubmitted by
may juftly challenge at all our hands. You are not ignorant, that the Spirit of GOD ftirred up the Apostle Paul to make continuall mention of the church of Philippi which (was a colonie of Rome): let the fame Spirit, we befeech you, put you in mind, that are the Lords remembrancers, to pray for us without ceafing (who are a weake colony from yourfelves) making continuall request for us to GOD in all your prayers.
' What we intreat of you that are minifters of GOD, that we crave at the hands of all the reft of our brethren, that they would at no time forget us in their private folicitations at the Throne of Grace.
'If any there be, who, through want of cleare intelligence of our courfe, or tenderneffes of affection towards us, cannot conceive fo well of our way as we could defire, we would intreat fuch not to defpife us, nor to defert us, in their prayers and affections; but to confider, rather, that they are fo much the more bound to exprefs the bowels of their compaffion towards us, remembring alwaies that both nature and grace doth binde us to re- lieve and refcue, with our utmoft and fpeediett power, fuch as are deare unto us, when wee conceive them to be running uncomfortable hazards.
'What goodnes you fhall extend to us in this or any other Chriftian kindneffe, wee your brethren in CHRIST IESVS fhall labour to repay in what dutie wee are or fhall be able to performe; promifing, fo farre as GOD fhall enable us, to give him no rett on your behalfes; withing our heads and hearts may be as fountaines of tears for your everlafting welfare, when wee fhall be in our poore cottages in the wilderneffe, overfhadowed with the fpirit of fupplication, through the manifold neceffities and tribulations which may not altogether unexpectedly, nor, we hope, unprofitably, befall us. And fo commending you to the grace of GOD in CHRIST, wee fhall ever reft,
'From Yarmouth, aboord the Arbella, April 7,1630.'
' Your affured Friends and Brethren,
Io: Winthrope, Gov. Rich : Saltonstall.
Charles Fines. Isaac Johnson.
George Phillips Tho: Dudley.
William Coddington.
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a fhort and certain Day. Before the time of carrying this Sen- tence into Execution, the Heads of the diftreffed Party peregri- nated thro' the wild, uncultivated Wildernefs, and fell in with Rhode-Ifland, made the Purchafe above-faid, and employed the intermediate Time between the Sentence of their Expulfion, and the Execution of it, in removing their Families and Effects to Rhode-Ifland, and a Town here called Providence. Thefe Rhode-Ifland Refugees refolved themfelves by their own, inftead of a better Authority, into a Body Politick, with Liberty of Con- fcience allowed to People of all Perfuafions, and became not a regular and legal Corporation, 'till King Charles the Second made them fo in 1663, a Day before, or a Day after, he had incorporated the Colony of Connecticut. The Grants, Pow- ers, and Privileges of both Patents, are to one and the fame Purpofe, and confequently the Civil Conftitution the fame. In Connecticut, I obferved to you, that Independency was the Religion of the State; but in Rhode-Ifland no Religion is eftablifhed. There a Man may, with Impunity, be of any Society, or of none at all; but the Quakers are, for the moft part, the People in Power. As Quakerifm broke out firft in England in 1651, fo, in 1654, Emiffaries of that Enthufi- afm were difpatched to the Il'eft-Indies; and no fooner did their Preachers appear in Rhode-Ifland, but they found many of the Pofterity of the firft Planters too well prepared for the Reception of that peftilent Herefy. The twenty-four Years that had run out from their firft Removal from England, and the feventeen that had elapfed from their fecond Settlement at Rhode-Ifland, had carried off the Stage of Life moft of thofe who received the firft Rudiments of Religion in the Mother Country. Their Defcendents and Succeflors, with- out Schools, without a regular Clergy, became neceffarily rude and illiterate; and, as Quakerifm prevailed, Learning was decried, Ignorance and Herefy fo increafed, that neither Epiphanius's, nor Sir Richard Blackmore's Catalogues, con- tain more heterodox and different Opinions in Religion than were to be found in this little Corner. The Magiftrates of the Maffachufets, who had before bore fo hard upon the Rhode- Iflanders, hanged four of thefe firft Quaker Speakers. This, with other Severities, exercifed on their Profelites in that Pro- vince, contributed to fend Shoals of thefe Sectaries to Rhode-
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Ifland, as to a fafer Sanctuary. This will account to you, for the Power and Number of Quakers in this Colony; who, notwithftanding, did not aim at Civil Authority, until their Brethren of Pennfylvania had got into the Saddle of Power; and, as they were fure of the major Vote, they thought, and they, as it has proved, thought right, they might exercife thofe Powers by the Connivance, which their Brethren did by the Confent of the Crown. In 1700, after Quakerifm and other Herefies had, in their Turns, ruled over and tinged all the Inhabitants for the Space of forty-fix Years, the Church of England, that had been loft here through the Neglect of the Crown, entered as it were, unobferved and unfeen, and yet not without fome Succefs. A little Church was built in New- port, the Metropolis of the Colony, in 1702, and that in which I officiate in Narraganfet, in 1707. There have been two In- cumbents before me ; but neither of them had refolution enough to grapple with the Difficulties of the Miffion above a Year a-piece. I entered on this Miffion in 1721; and found the People not a Tabula rafa, or clean Sheet of Paper, upon which I might make any Impreflions I pleafed; but a Field full of Briars and Thorns, and noxious weeds, that were all to be eradicated, before I.could implant in them the Simplicity of Truth. However, by God's Blefling, I have brought over to the Church fome Hundreds, and, among the Hundreds I have baptized, there are at leaft 150 who received the Sacrament at my Hands, from twenty Years old, to feventy or eighty. Ex Pede Herculem. By this, you may gucfs, in how unculti- vated a Country my Lot fell. By my excurfions, and Out- Labours, a Church is built 25 Milesto the Weftward of me,*
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