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M. L
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
BEN
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 00055 6370
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015
https://archive.org/details/memorialsofcentu1869jenn
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My Friend and Grotte
Kronings
MEMORIALS OF A CENTURY.
"TIME ROLLS HIS CEASELESS COURSE. THE RACE OF YORE WHO DANCED OUR INFANCY UPON THEIR KNEE, AND TOLD OUR MARVELLING BOYHOOD LEGEND'S STORE OF THEIR STRANGE VENTURES HAPP'D BY LAND OR SEA,
HOW ARE THEY BLOTTED FROM THE THINGS THAT BE !
HOW FEW, ALL WEAK AND WITHERED OF THEIR FORCE, WAIT ON THE VERGE OF DARK ETERNITY,
LIKE STRANDED WRECKS, THE TIDE RETURNING HOARSE
TO SWEEP THEM FROM OUR SIGHT. TIME ROLLS HIS CEASELESS COURSE.
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A. Reidesels Dragoons. B. Rangers.
C. American Volunteers.
D. Corman Grenadiers.
E. Chasseurs.
F. Houses Posts of Canadians!
G. Bodies of the Enemy .
100
SCALE OF PACES
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800
Rockmim servington
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MAP OF BENNINGTON BATTLE.
See p.p. 168-171
The River was by mistake called Hosack,and there was no indication of the points of compass, otherwis the above, is an exact Copy , reduced of the Map in Burgoyne's State of the Expedition. The letter press is of course British. For "American Volunteers"read Tories. "Bodies of the Enem
means Forces of Gen . Stark. "Walmscock" means Walloomsac.
POSITION of the DETACHMENT under LIEUTT COL .- BAUM at WALMS COCK near BENNINGTON. Showing the Attacks of the Enemy on the 16th August 1777. Drawn by Lieut' Durnford Engineer Engraved by W" Faden 1780.
Road from Saratoga
MEMORIALS OF A CENTURY.
EMBRACING A
RECORD OF INDIVIDUALS AND EVENTS
CHIEFLY IN
THE EARLY HISTORY OF BENNINGTON, VT.
AND ITS
FIRST CHURCH.
BY
ISAAC JENNINGS, PASTOR OF THE CHURCH.
BOSTON : GOULD AND LINCOLN, 59 WASHINGTON STREET. 1869.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1869, by ISAAC JENNINGS, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the District of Vermont.
Rockwell & Rollins, Printers and Stereotypers, 122 -Washington Street, Boston.
1137030
THE PEOPLE OF HIS PASTORAL CHARGE,
WITH AFFECTION AND ESTEEM,
AND TO
All interested in the Early History of Bennington,
THIS VOLUME
IS RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED, BY
THE AUTHOR.
BENNINGTON, Jan. 6, 1863.
To REV. ISAAC JENNINGS.
Dear Sir: Having listened with much pleasure to your very interesting centennial discourse, delivered on the 4th inst., and considering it of great historical value, we are very desirous that it should be published for distri- bution and preservation; and we would respectfully request you to furnish a copy for the press.
H. G. ROOT.
GEORGE BENTON.
M. C. MORGAN.
STEPHEN BINGHAM.
GEORGE LYMAN.
S. F. HARRIS.
I. W. VAIL.
M. G. SELDEN.
F. C. WHITE.
HILAND HALL.
A. B. GARDNER.
SAMUEL CHANDLER.
H. H. HARWOOD. WILLIAM WEBB.
PREFACE.
HE foundation of this volume is the discourse de- livered at the Centennial Celebration of the organ- ization of the Bennington First Church, the publi- cation of which was requested by the note on the preceding page.
The first nine chapters are, without essential modification, the discourse. Some account of the centennial celebration and the conclusion of the discourse make up chapter twenty- six.
In view of publication, four subjects presented themselves for a more complete consideration than the writer had given to them, namely : the land-title controversy ; the Ben- nington battle ; the individual men and women of Bennington in the past times; and the Separatist antecedents of many of the first inhabitants, together with their promotion of civil liberty as to public worship. Hence so many pages devoted to these subjects, and a volume instead of a discourse.
The writer has been in various ways much assisted by numerous kind friends of the work. He would make par- ticular mention of his indebtedness to William Haswell, Esq., clerk of the church, now deceased, for reminiscences, documents, and labors upon the church records, without-
VIII
PREFACE.
which these memorials would be far more imperfect than they are; to the Rev. R. C. Learned, of Plymouth, Conn.,- an esteemed college classmate, deceased April 19, 1867, - for information respecting Separatism in Connecticut; to S. F. Plimpton, Esq., of Boston, Mass., - also an esteemed college classmate, deceased April 22, 1867, -for extensive and ac- curate researches amongst the laws of Massachusetts in their bearing upon the Separates; and to the Hon. Hiland Hall, - the able late president of the Vermont Historical Society, writer of the historical account of Bennington (so compre- hensive as to be in itself a history of the town) in Miss Hemmenway's "Vermont Historical Magazine," and author of "The Early History of Vermont." Almost the entire manuscript of these "Memorials,", before their final com- pletion for the press, had the benefit of his careful revision. His valuable aid in many ways, and active interest in the success of these labors, demand grateful acknowledgment.
Thanks are also due to those who have encouraged the undertaking by subscribing for copies of the volume in ad- vance, who belong to other churches and parishes in the town, and who, though now many of them prominent in the community, have not by early settlement here, or by genea- logical descent, any connection with its early history, and it may be their names do not occur in the following pages.
And finally the author feels under obligation to the ex- perienced judgment and kind co-operation of the publishers. BENNINGTON CENTRE, VT., April, 1869.
(
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
TOWNSHIP. PAGE
Charter. - Proprietors' Records. - The first Immigration. - The first Public Meeting. - Hardships of the first Settlers. 19
CHAPTER II. FIRST MEETING-HOUSE.
Its Location. - Its Cost, how provided for. - Description of the first Meeting- house. - Memorable Days of the first Meeting-house. - Its Removal to give place to the second Meeting-house. - Farewell to the first Meeting-house. 24
CHAPTER III.
THE CHURCH.
Name of the original Church. - Date of Organization. - Churches previously on the Ground. - Original Members of the First Church. - Call to Rev .. Jedidiah Dewey. - Call to the Westfield Church and Pastor. - Council at Westfield. - Early Growth of the First Church. - Accessions during Mr. Dewey's Ministry. - State of Society. - Roll of the Church for its first Cen- tury .- Table of Additions. - Pastors - Deacons. - Clerks. - Interesting Memoranda.
31
x
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER IV.
SEPARATISM.
Interesting Subject of Inquiry. - Proceedings in the Sunderland Church .- Separates excommunicated in some Instances. - Cause of the Settlement of Bennington. - The " Great Awakening." -Connecticut Laws. - "Old Lights " and "New Lights." - Heat of the Controversy. - Massachusetts Laws. - Bennington Separates and Connecticut Separates sympathize. - Connecticut Separates compose the Westfield Council. 47
CHAPTER V. INTERNAL PERPLEXITIES OF THE CHURCH.
Financial Controversy .- How shall we pay the Minister ? - The Separate Way modified. - The Church opposed to extreme Separatism. - Two Par- ties to a long Church Controversy. - Spiritual Declension. - A Sign of better Things. - How to pay the Minister never settled. - Case of Rev. David Avery. - His Talents fail to unite the Church. - His singular Cere- mony of Installation. - Ecclesiastical Council. - Mr. Avery's Resignation. - The Slavery Question. - A " Consci-hen-tious " Captain. . 55
CHAPTER VI.
THE CHURCH IN THE WORLD.
Energetic secular Life. Roads and Bridges to build. - Accommodations for the travelling Public to maintain. - Land-title Controversy. - Revolu- tionary War .- Leading Men in public Life were leading Men in the Church. - Muster-roll of the first military Company. - First Saw and Grist Mill. - Spread of Religion .. 65
CHAPTER VII.
REVIVALS.
Bennington Christians believed in Revivals. - They were Friends of Whit- field. - They enjoyed numerous Revivals. - Revival of 1803. - The Revival needed. - Three-days' Meeting. - Original Hymns. - Miss Read's Narra-
XI
CONTENTS.
tive of the Revival. - An Inquiry Meeting. - Fruits of the Revival .- The Friday Meeting .- Other Revivals. - Revival of 1831. - A joyful Com- munion Season. 71
CHAPTER VIII. THE FIRST SEVEN PASTORS.
Rev. Jedidiah Dewey. - His Ability and Fidelity. - He became a Separate. - His sterling Qualities. - His Ministry in Bennington. - His Services in the Land-Title Controversy. - Anecdotes of Mr. Dewey. - His Genealogy and Family. - Rev. David Avery. - His Army Labors as Chaplain in the Revolution. - A War Sermon. - His Ministry in Bennington. - His Manner in the Pulpit. - His last Sickness and Death. - Rev. Job Swift, D.D. - His Genealogy and Education. - Troubled State of public Af- fairs during his Ministry in Bennington. - His ministerial Success. - His Matter and Manner as a Preacher. - His missionary Zeal. - His Hospitality and Benevolence. - His University Honors. - He died in the Triumphs of Faith. - Rev. Daniel Marsh. - His ministerial Labors. - His Call to Bennington and Installation. - Additions to the Church during his Ministry here. - Excellent Characteristics of Mr. Marsh. - His subse- quent Labors in the Ministry. - His last Sickness and Death. - His Wife. - His Family. - Extracts from Diary of Benjamin Harwood. - Rev. Ab- salom Peters, D.D. - His Parentage and Education. - His Fields of Labor and public Services. - His Bennington Pastorate. - An Anecdote. - His Sermon against public Immoralities. - Rev. Daniel A. Clark. - His An- cestors. - His Settlements and other Labors in the Ministry. - His Power in the Pulpit. - His Assaults upon Intemperance and other Immoralities. - He excited Opposition. - Revivals in Connection with his Labors. - His Decease. - Rev. E. W. Hooker, D.D. - His Parentage and Education .- His Fields of Labor. - His published Works. - His Love for his Profes- sion. - His Ministry in Bennington. - His Family.
1
82
CHAPTER IX. TRANSIENT MINISTERS.
Rev. Mr. Burton. - An Anecdote. - Father Marshall. - His Eccentricity. - His Conversion. - Anecdotes of Father Marshall. - Rev. J. Spaulding. - His Labors. - His printed Works. - His Politics. - Rev. Jedidiah Bush- nell. - Rev. Lemuel Haynes. - Rev. Edward Dorr Griffen, D.D. - His Ser- mon at the Funeral of Alonzo B. Stiles.
116
XII
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER X.
THE LAND-TITLE CONTROVERSY.
Proclamation of Gov. Colden. - Charter to the Duke of York, 1664. - Order in Council of the King, 1764. - High-handed Proceedings of New York. - The Settlers determined to resist the New York Claim to Jurisdiction. - Order in Council of the King, 1767. - Spirit of the New York Colonial Gov- ernment. - Spirit of the Settlers upon the New Hampshire Grants .- Their Shrewdness, Moderation, and Patriotism. - Length of the Struggle. . . 126
CHAPTER XI.
THE LAND-TITLE CONTROVERSY, CONTINUED.
Controversy with New Hampshire. - Bennington Head-quarters of the Re- sistance to New York .- Unsuccessful Attempt to get Possession of the Breakenridge Farm. - Rescue of Remember Baker. - The Green Moun- tain Boys .- Council of Safety. - Catamount Tavern. - Bennington Men prominent in the Negotiations at Philadelphia. - Convention at Dorset. - Notes to the above two Chapters.
140
CHAPTER XII.
THE BENNINGTON BATTLE.
Anxiety in the Country previous to the Battle. - Surrender of Ticonderoga and Defeat at Hubbardton. - Perplexity of Gen. Washington. - Prestige of Burgoyne. - Indian Terrors. - Murder of Miss McCrea. - Baum's Expedi- tion. - Burgoyne's Instructions to Baum. -- Baum's Force. - Vermont aroused. - Feeling at Bennington. - Determined Spirit of the Settlers. - Getting a Foothold. - Address of the Council of Safety. - Preparations to meet the Enemy. - Patriotic Offer of John Langdon. - Gen. Stark. - Ef- fects of Tories confiscated. - Baum's Movements before the Battle. - Gen. Stark's Movements. - Gen. Stark marches to meet Baum. - Baum's Entrenchments .- Gen. Stark's Force. - His Plan of Attack. - The Bat- tle .- Our Soldiers before the Assault on Baum's Works. - Valor of the Hessians. - Irresistible Onset of our Men. - The Breastworks carried. -
XIII
CONTENTS.
Arrival of Breyman with his Reinforcement. - Renewal of the Battle. - Arrival of Warner's Reinforcement. - Anxiety of the Council of Safety. - Rout of Breyman and complete Victory. - Statements by Eye-wit- nesses. - Results of the Battle. - Trophies. - Prisoners. - General Re- sults. - Inhabitants of the Grants reassured. - The Country reassured. - Further patriotic Exertions of the Green Mountain Boys. - Compara- tive Strength of Forces. - Estimate of Gen. Burgoyne. - Our Men not trained Soldiers. - Destitution in our Army. - Incidents of the Battle. - Exhausting Effects of the Engagement. - The fighting Parson. - Wil- liamstown Volunteers. - Williamstown Prayer-meeting. - Our Dead. - Stanzas of Rev. E. H. Chapin, D.D. - Roll of Capt. Robinson's Company. -Ode by Mrs. A. C. L. Botta. 146
CHAPTER XIII.
PERSONAL NOTICES-SAMUEL ROBINSON, SEN., ESQ., AND MRS. MARCY L. ROBINSON.
Samuel Robinson, Esq. - His History before his Settlement in Bennington. - His public Services. - His Mission to England. - His Death. - Letter of William Samuel Johnson. - Mrs. Marcy L. Robinson. - Her Energy .- Her Piety. - Her Decease. 204
CHAPTER XIV.
PERSONAL NOTICES - FIRST IMMIGRATION.
Mrs. Bridget Harwood. - Peter Harwood. - Sarah Harwood. - Eleazer Har- wood. - Zecharialı Harwood. - Others of Mrs. Bridget Harwood's De- scendants. - Rev. Mr. Winchester .- Samuel and Timothy Pratt .- Stephen Pratt. 213
CHAPTER XV.
PERSONAL NOTICES -SECOND IMMIGRATION.
Dea. John Fassett. - John Fassett, Jr. - Col. Benjamin Fassett. - Col. Elias Fassett. - Other Descendants of Dea. John Fassett. - Dea. Joseph Saf- ford. - Gen. Samuel Safford. - Other Descendants of Dea. Joseph Safford.
2
1
XIV
CONTENTS.
Dea. Erwin Safford. - Elisha Field. - Lieut James Breakenridge. - Dan- iel Breakenridge. - Others of the Breakenridge Family. - Ebenezer Wood .- Dea. John Wood. - Gov. Moses Robinson. - Capt. Moses Robin- son, Jr. - Major Aaron Robinson. - Other Descendants of Gov. Moses Robinson. 228
CHAPTER XVI.
PERSONAL NOTICES -SECOND IMMIGRATION, CONTINUED.
Gen. David Robinson. - David Robinson, Jr., Esq. - Hon. Stephen Robinson. - Heman Robinson .- Other Descendants of Gen. David Robinson. - Judge Jonathan Robinson. - Jonathan E. Robinson. - Gen. Henry Rob- inson. - Isaac Tichenor Robinson. - Other Descendants of Judge Jona- than Robinson. 239
CHAPTER XVII.
PERSONAL NOTICES - 1762.
Stephen Fay. - John Fay .- Dr. Jonas Fay. - Benjamin Fay. - Samuel Fay, Esq .- Col. Joseph Fay. - Judge David Fay .- Other Descendants of Stephen Fay. - Nathan Clark. - Phineas Scott. - Col. Martin Scott. - Other Descendants of Phineas Scott. 253
CHAPTER XVIII.
PERSONAL NOTICES - 1763-1765.
Capt. Elijah Dewey. - Elijah Dewey Hubbell .- Family of Capt. Elijah Dewey. - Dea. Hezekiah Armstrong. - Others of the Armstrongs. - Thomas Hen- derson. - Descendants of Thomas Henderson. - Simeon Harmon. - Dea. Nathaniel Harmon. - Austin Harmon. - Others of the Harmons. - Gen. . Ebenezer Walbridge. - Stebbins Walbridge. - Other Descendants of Gen. Walbridge. 266
XV
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XIX.
PERSONAL NOTICES - 1766-1769.
Elnathan Hubbell. - James Hubbell, Esq. - Dea. Aaron Hubbell. - Other Descendants of Elnathan Hubbell. - Joseph Robinson. - Robert Cochran. - David Haynes. - Descendants of David Haynes. - Reuben Colvin. - Descendants of Reuben Colvin. - Nathaniel Fillmore. - His Family .- Simeon Hathaway. - Thomas Jewett. - Charles Cushman. - Eleazer
Hawks. - His Family. 283
CHAPTER XX.
PERSONAL NOTICES - 1775-1776.
Dea. Joseph Bingham. - Jeremiah Bingham. - Dea. Calvin Bingham .- Other Descendants of Dea. Joseph Bingham. - Nathaniel Brush. - Samuel Blackmer - Descendants of Samuel Blackmer. - David Henry. - James Henry. - John Henry. - Hon. William Henry. - Other Descendants of William Henry. - Joseph Hinsdill. - Dea. Stephen Hinsdill. - Other De- scendants of Joseph Hinsdill. - Eleazer Edgerton. - Uriah Edgerton, Esq. - Other Descendants of Eleazer Edgerton. - John Kinsley. - Abisha Kinsley. - Capt. Moses Sage. - Descendants of Capt. Moses Sage. - Sim- eon Sears. 289
CHAPTER XXI.
PERSONAL NOTICES - 1777-1784.
Gov. Isaac Tichenor. - Thomas Hall. - Dea. Nathaniel Hall. - Children of Dea. Nathaniel Hall. - Ancestors of Thomas Hall. - Anthony Haswell, Esq. - Thomas Haswell. - William Haswell. - Other Descendants of An- thony Haswell, Esq. - Thomas Weeks. - David Weeks. - Other Descend- ants of Thomas Weeks. - Ichabod Paddock. - William Potter. - , Col. Martin Norton. 299
XVI
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XXII.
PERSONAL NOTICES - 1785-1800.
Dr. Noadiah Swift. - Family of Dr. Noadiah Swift. - Capt. Saxton Squire. - Children of Capt. Saxton Squire. - Mrs. Mary Galusha. - Gov. Galu- sha. - Rufus Barney. - Elkanah Barney. - Capt. Ebenezer Chace. - Fam- ily of Capt. Chace. - Samuel Hicks. - Descendants of Samuel Hicks. - Mrs. Polly Roach. - Descendants of Mrs. Roach. - Dr. Micah J. Lyman. - Children of Dr. Lyman. - Col. Orsamus C. Merrill. - Dr. Heman Swift. - Roger Booth. - Jesse Loomis. - Children of Jesse Loomis. - Capt. John Norton. - Jonathan Hunt. - Family of Mr. Hunt. - Ancestors of Mr. Hunt. - Andrew Selden. - Descendants of Andrew Selden. 310
CHAPTER XXIII.
PERSONAL NOTICES- 1803 AND AFTERWARD.
Dea. Jotham French. - Rev. William Harvey. - Daniel Nichols. - Children of Daniel Nichols. - William Park. - Thayer. - Jacob Pool. - Charles Wright, Esq. - Lyman Patchin. - John Vanderspeigel. - Mrs. Betsey Carpenter. - Dea. Isaac Crossett. - Lewis Chandler. - Mrs. Susannah Watson. - Dr. William Bigelow. - Gay R. Sanford. - Hon. John H. Olin. 326
CHAPTER XXIV.
EDUCATION.
Common Schools. - First district School-house in Bennington. - General Diffusion of common-school Education .- Education in the State. - Article in the first Constitution. - Act of 1787. - Remarks of Dr. Williams. - Academies and Colleges. - Sons of Vermont. - Academies in Bennington. - Clio Hall. - College Graduates, and Others. 336
CHAPTER XXV.
CHURCHES ORGANIZED IN BENNINGTON SUBSEQUENTLY TO THE ORGANIZATION OF THE BENNINGTON FIRST CHURCH-1762-1862.
Rev. Mr. Hibbard and his People. - The First Baptist Church. - The Metho- dist Episcopal Church. - St. Peter's Church. - The Hinsdillville Presby-
XVII
CONTENTS.
terian Church. - The Second Congregational Church. - The Universalist Meeting-house in North Bennington. - The Baptist Church in North Ben- nington. - The Hinsdillville Methodist Episcopal Church. - The Methodist Chapel in Paper-Mill Village. - The Methodist Chapel in the north-east Part of the Town. - The Roman Catholic Congregation and Church Edifice. 342
CHAPTER XXVI.
THE CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION.
Account of the Celebration. - Concluding Remarks of the Centennial Dis- course. 349
CHAPTER XXVII.
SUPPLEMENTARY.
The Township in the Olden Time. - Location of some of the early Settlers. - Population of the Town at the Commencement of the Revolution. - Execu- tion of David Redding. - Trial of Tibbetts and Whitney for the alleged Murder of Stephen Gordon. - Jeffersonian Democracy in the early His- tory of Bennington. - Visit of Jefferson and Madison to Gov. Moses Rob- inson. - Anthony Haswell's Imprisonment under the Sedition Law. - Political Party Spirit in Bennington. - Present Meeting-house of the First Congregational Church. - Articles of Faith. . 354
CHAPTER XXVIII.
INFLUENCE OF THE EARLY SETTLERS OF VERMONT ON FREEDOM OF PUBLIC WORSHIP.
Laws of Massachusetts as affecting the Separates. - Law of 1760. - Sepa- rates incompetent to collect by Law any Assessment or Subscription for their own Minister. - The exempting Laws. - Laws of Vermont respect- ing Public Worship. - The certificating Laws. - Article on Religious Worship in the First Constitution. - Remarks of Dr. Williams. - Credit due to the Bennington Pioneers. 363
3*
XVIII
CONTENTS.
NOTES ON CHAPTERS IV., AND XXVIII.
I. THE HALFWAY COVENANT. - Time of its Prevalency. - Its Effects. --- Great spiritual Degeneracy in the Country. - Opposition to the Reforma- tion .. 371
II. CASES OF HARDSHIP TO THE SEPARATES UNDER THE OPERATION OF MASSACHUSETTS ECCLESIASTICAL LAWS. - The Sturbridge Case. - The Titicut Case. - Other Instances of Hardship. 376
III. MERITS OF SEPARATISM. - Reformation needed. - Rudeness as well as Energy. - The Separates not always mindful of Charity. - Results of the Separate Movement. - General Return of the Separates to the old Churches after the latter had accepted in the main the Reforms which the Separates demanded. - The Bennington Separates more favorably sit- uated than if they had remained in the vicinity of the old Churches. . . 379
IV. LAWS OF MASSACHUSETTS AND CONNECTICUT COMPARED. . . 384
V. JUSTICE TO THE PURITANS. - They did not profess Principles of Equal- ity, or entire Freedom of Conscience as to Public Worship. - They were nevertheless in Advance of their Times. - The Tree must be judged by its Fruits. 387
-
APPENDIX.
A. Charter of Bennington. 391
B. Allen and Warner. 394
C. Covenant of First Church. 398
D. Articles of Newint Separate Church. 400
E. Result of a Separate Ecc. Council. 403
F. Signers' Agreement to be Taxed for Public Worship. 404
G. Paper to Settle Indian Claims. 405
H. Letter of Governor Hutchinson. 407
t
1
MEMORIALS OF A CENTURY.
CHAPTER I.
TOWNSHIP.
HE FIRST SETTLEMENT of Vermont, and the early struggles of its inhabitants not only in sub- duing a wilderness, but establishing an indepen- dent government," says Sparks, in his " American Biography," "afford some of the most remarkable incidents in American History." If this is true of the State in general, it is especially true of Bennington, the cradle of its infancy ; and no less true of Bennington's religious than of its secular life; for as it was the first town chartered, so its First Church was the first also in the territory afterward Vermont, and the antecedents and early career of this church, which for sixty-four years was the only one in the town, furnish a subject second to no other in interest and importance in the history of Ben- nington.
To present the religious, side by side with the secular early life of the town, to gather up' remarkable incidents of both, to extend careful research in directions heretofore neglected, and to combine the whole in a permanent form for perusal and preservation, is the design of the follow- ing pages.
20
MEMORIALS OF A CENTURY.
On January 3, 1749, parties, many of them from Ports- mouth, New Hampshire,1 obtained a grant from the New Hampshire governor, Benning Wentworth, Esq., in the name of King George II., of a township, six miles square, situated six miles north of the Massachusetts line, and twenty miles east of the Hudson. According to the pro- visions of this charter, these purchasers first divided off acre homesteads in the centre, to the number of sixty- four for a village plot, and then divided the remainder into sixty-four equal parts, and cast lots for the same. Each original purchaser is believed to have sold his share with- out perhaps ever seeing it, except upon paper, certainly to have never settled upon it or improved it. It should have been said that, of the sixty-four shares, two went to Governor Wentworth, one to the first settled minister, whoever he might be, one for schools, and the remaining sixty to as many different individuals.2
The township remained an unbroken wilderness for thirteen years, thoughi men thus cast lots for it, and appropriated it to be some time a town under the name of Bennington, in honor of the Christian name of the New Hampshire governor. Captain Samuel Robinson, return- ing to his home in Massachusetts from one of the cam- paigns of the Continental army in the French war, mistak- ing his route, passed, by accident, this way ; and, impressed by the attractiveness of the country, resolved to obtain others to join him and come up and settle here. His reso- lution was carried into effect. Others agreed to accompany him. They searched out the owners of the land; they purchased the rights of the original grantees, or of those to whom they had sold, and removed hither,
1 The grantees of Bennington were many, probably most, of them from Ports- mouth. Col. Williams, the first-named proprietor in the charter, was from Massachusetts, and afterward settled and died in Pittsfield. Probably some others were from Massachusetts.
2 Vermont Hist. Mag.
21
THE FIRST IMMIGRATION.
The purchasers of the rights were termed proprietors ; and the whole purchase in common, or township as related to its purchasers, a propriety. The proprietors had busi- ness meetings before a town was organized, and for some years afterward ; they settled boundary lines outside of the whole, and between one proprietor and another ; they located and worked some of the roads; they re-located some of the proprietors who were not pleased with their original purchase. Some who found their purchase lying on the east side of the township desired to be re-located on the west side, and the change was authorized in the proprietors' meetings. The proprietors' meeting had its moderator ; and the propriety, its clerk. Samuel Rob- inson, Esq., was moderator of the first proprietors' meeting and John Fassett was clerk of the propriety. Records were kept, - not folio volumes bound in calf and deposited with dignity in an iron safe ; a few leaves sewed together after the fashion of a school-boy's hoine-made writing-book sufficed. Those records are interesting now. That little collection of eight-inch square leaves, now time-worn, - for it is a century old, - is bound in the first part of the first volume of the town records, and one can soon read it through ; but the transactions recorded there are full of im- portance.
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