USA > Vermont > Bennington County > Arlington > St. James' Episcopal Church, Arlington, Vermont : a sketch of the birth and growth of Saint James' Parish, the oldest parish in the diocese of Vermont, together with brief sketches of the lives of the bishops of the diocese and of the rectors of St. James' Parish > Part 3
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At first it was the plan to build the church half way between East il West Arlington, but later the location of the church was reconsid- d and it was voted to build south of the Churchyard.
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ST. JAMES' EPISCOPAL CHURCH, ARLINGTON
Here are some of the Minutes of the meeting of November si: 1784, which relate to the building of the church:
"Voted to build a church forty-five feet long thirty-five feet w .; eighteen feet posts. Voted Nathan Canfield to have the charge f building the church. Voted to raise two shillings on the pound for e use of building us a church.
"Voted that a man with a good team have six shillings per day, 10 with an axe, three shillings.
"Voted that shingles shall be twelve shillings per thousand.
"Voted that good pine boards be six dollars per thousand delivered the frame.
"Voted that sideboards be five dollars per thousand delivered at e frame.
"Voted that the carpenters have four shillings and six pence per and joiners four shillings per day."
The Church was a large two-story building of wood, withou tower, standing on the same site as the present stone church, the fit entrance, however, being in the south side instead of the east side in the present church.
It had galleries on three sides, a broad aisle and two side aisles; one right side of the broad aisle before the chancel stood the Font, anc the left the Reading Desk, back and over which was the large box .. pit of those days reached by a flight of ten or more steps.
The floor was occupied by square pews which would hold all twelve persons each. The troubles of the time delayed the construct
Nathan Canfield was appointed to have sole charge of the work In 1786 it was ordered that the church be covered as soon as m be. It was not completed till 1803 (Brownson's Historical Letters)
It is worthy of note that the Churchmen who were instrumenta establishing the parish at Arlington were many of them, like Cap Hawley, men of strong character and deep religious convictions.
Nathan Canfield, the pioneer among the Canfields, was first mar to Lois, eldest daughter of Captain James Hard. They moved to . ington about 1768.
Squire Canfield is said to have been a man of sagacity and prude who in the troublous times when party feelings ran high retained high degree the confidence of both parties.
His connections and sympathies were without question with loyalists, but he maintained friendly relations through all the con versies, with Allen, Baker, Warner and the other leaders.
He represented the town in 1786. He died April sixteenth, 1800 his seventieth year.
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THE BEGINNING IN ARLINGTON
" The Rev. F. A. Wadleigh, in the Vermont Historical Gazeteer, wrote } following under the title "Hard Family":
According to a tradition, carefully transmitted, there was in Lon- at the time of the great plague, a family by the name of 'Hard.' perished but James, a lad fourteen years of age, who was by the wlic authorities apprenticed to the celebrated Captain Kidd, whom kserved in various capacities for seven years.
Being then free James Hard came to Strafford, Connecticut, then to Jwtown, where he married a woman by the name of Tomlinson, and ril at the age of one hundred and seven years.
From the above circumstance the Hards were for several generations ata ed 'Kidd.' "
er ames Hard left two sons, Joseph and James, and several daughters. aes the younger, was an opulent farmer of Newtown, Maine. He Dried Hannah Kimberley. They had eleven children. Zadok the oongest came to Arlington in 1768.
Ann who married Andrew Hawley, came, perhaps, a year or two icalier. Captain James, the older, married Hester Booth and came a few ers later. Captain James Hard was a devoted loyalist.
oVadok Hard, Esq., brother of Captain James, was a loyalist in princi- and but actively employed on his farm, gave very little occasion for xcplaint. It was said that he secreted and fed the loyalists who fled Diim for shelter. For this, and perhaps other kindred offences he was atral times arrested and heavily fined. He seems to have had a habit ufissisting the needy, as many well authenticated anecdotes show.
)n a certain occasion, a negro who had run away from his master, € to the house of Zadok Hard for protection, and was not betrayed. another occasion twenty-five famished American soldiers were fed t quire Hard's house, on Mrs. Hard's express invitation. It is certain h: no needy person ever left the house unrelieved.
n 1788 there arose in the congregation a dissatisfaction with the uner of life of the Rev. James Nichols.
The Minutes of the Vestry state that a committee was chosen to con- toe with Mr. Nichols and the verbal report of this committee was that elad declined any kind of a settlement with the Vestry respecting the ud nister's Rights" in this town or any other matter whatever.
ied was then voted that the "Yeas" and "Nays" might be taken of a persons as have over do pay Notes to Mr. Nichols, whether they itbose to continue to hire Mr. Nichols any longer, and that the Yeas con Nays might be taken when such person can be found. Which mo- ( being seconded, a vote being called it was passed in the Negative.
18 On June fourth, 1788, the Vestry again met and the following Min- t: are recorded:
Ca ma
rs
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ST. JAMES' EPISCOPAL CHURCH, ARLINGTON
1st. Voted that Simon Toll be Clerk protem. for this meeting, Voted that Elnathan Merwin and James Read be the committee to vite the Reverend James Nichols to Treat with this Vestry. 3rd. motion made to the Vestry to hire the Reverend James Nichols half of the time for six months, Voted in the negative. 4th. On a tion made for this vestry to withdraw from the Ministry of the : James Nichols, Voted for the following Reasons we withdraw,
"First, his life and conversation is not agreeable to the character Gospel Minister.
"Secondly, in his administration he had neglected a part of Apostles' Creed and the sign of the cross after Baptism, also the C munion service.
"6th. Voted that we will not pay him any salary after this date services. 7th. Voted that Captain James Hard and David Norto a committee to make up the Minister's Note. 8th. Voted that Samuel Read and Issac Oatman be collectors to collect the Mini: Note. 9th. Voted that Mr. Caleb Dayton is appointed to inform Reverend James Nichols of the proceedings of this Vestry. 1 Voted that this meeting be Dissolved."
There is no record of the proceedings of "the Society" from 1788 to September sixth, 1790, when at a Vestry meeting Zadok F Caleb Dayton and Nathan Canfield were elected as delegates to at the convention of the Episcopal Church to be held at Arlington tember twenty-first, 1790 (see next Chapter).
The following is the copy of the agreement entered into on Septer seventh, 1792 between the vestry and the Rev. Russell Catlin or event of Mr. Catlin's taking charge of the parish.
The original agreement is now on the wall of the Sacristy o James' Church:
"Be it known that We Russell Catlin Preacher of the Gospel, 1 candidate for the Ministry, now a minister over the Episcopal Ch in Arlington, on the one part, and Timothy Todd, Miller Turner, Lı Stone, Zadok Hard, and Nathan Canfield, a committee from the ] of Arlington being duly authorized to act for and in behalf of town, on the other part,
do Covenant & Agree in the Manner following The said Catlin on his part Covenants that He will Continue in the of Minister over the Episcopal Church in this Town taking Char the People as their Minister and by doing and Rendering every Se expected or Required from a Minister to his people so long as it please God in His Providence to Continue Him in full life and give abilities Therefor.
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THE BEGINNING IN ARLINGTON
The said Committee on their part for said Town agree to pay the Catlin Seventy Pounds to be paid in Cattle or Grain the one half the first day of June next and the one the first Day of June which be in the year of our Lord 1794 as an Incouragement for his Set- ig in the Ministry among us.
The said Committee further stipulate and agree to pay the said Mr. ¿lin Fifty pounds per annum to be paid annually in Grain on the r. of October for four next succeeding years Reckoning from the r Day of October next, at the expiration of said four years. The ove sum of Fifty Pounds to Increase or Rise in proportion as the and List of the Inhabitants Increases until it amounts to Sixty Pounds Annum. to be paid in like manner so long as the said Mr. Catlin ul Continue in full Life or in the Ministry in this Town.
And we the above mentioned parties do in the most Solemn manner je to abide without Deviation by this our agreement, Each Party eing the said Catlin for Himself and the said Committee for the n of Arlington, to be subject to such Damages as may ensue by the ect or failure of either Party.
in Witness whereof we have hereunto Interchangeably set our hands wseals this Seventh Day of September anno Domini 1792
RUSSELL CATLIN
TIM J. TODD ZADOK HARD
MILLER TURNER NATHAN CANFIELD
LUTHER STONE
his early period in the life of the Church at Arlington was marked truggle against religious prejudice and political hostilities and con- persies.
l is remarkable that in the bitter strife that prevailed between pa- ( and loyalist during the Revolutionary period any vestige of an copal organization remained. Indeed the Church was almost ex-
Clevitably the early settlers who came with firm determination to Lelish the Anglican faith as their refuge from the religious intoler- eg of Puritan rule in Connecticut must have been viewed with sus- n by other settlers of other religious folds or of none, as having at s some sort of sympathy with the royalists in whose political and jous faith they had been reared.
no records are in evidence to give a picture of how our churchly fore- rs held their ground and day by day sought to better their social s'eligious welfare, but may we not believe that the men and women were the founders of this Society were a Godfearing, courageous physically fit type of people gifted with a large share of the homely tes of common sense and thrift?
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ST. JAMES' EPISCOPAL CHURCH, ARLINGTON
Is it too fanciful to conjure up images of the sturdy stock that nished the pluck, the common sense, the plain living and high-thin] the wit and humor, the philosophy and the wisdom, all of which q. ties must have made up in some measure the warp and woof of ( r acters and personalities which bore the burden and heat of that burdens borne that their children and children's children might € a heritage which they struggled to preserve for them?
Failures undoubtedly there were, in fact one of the historians of day, the Rev. Nathaniel Perkins, in his "Tours of Vermont" desce in far from glowing terms, the manner of living, the homes where garities and coarseness were rampant, and where religion was des and flouted. That picture contains the seamy side of human n which marks every generation.
But in those yesterdays there must have been in that hamlet, as is today (and that is why we prize it as our home), a group of p who served God and who struggled to maintain a law-abiding munity where prevailed the spirit of neighborliness and the will to the best of life in their chosen homeland.
CHAPTER THREE
How Two Bishops-Elect Failed to Become Bishops of Vermont
THE annual diocesan Convention which was held at Arlington, June 18, 1890, was the commemoration of the Centennial of the first Convention of the Episcopal Church in Vermont held at Ington, September 20, 1790. This centennial was called "Our lee." 1
he Rev. A. H. Bailey, D.D., who gave the historical address on that xsion makes the following mention of the first convention:
On the morning of September 20, 1790, the leading churchmen met te dwelling house of Nathan Canfield, Esq. (which stood on the west dof the highway leading to Manchester, about half a mile north of «village), and talked over the steps necessary to be taken to organize Leconvention, and agree upon them. They then adjourned to the tich for divine service." (The church though not completed until "; was by this time ready for occupancy.)
he Rt. Rev. William Henry Augustus Bissell, D.D., the Bishop of Diocese, who presided at the centennial convention, in his address io "The first convention was a gathering of two clergymen, the Rev. a el Barber, of Manchester, and the Rev. James Nichols, of Sandgate, eighteen laymen. There was one delegate from parishes on the srn side of the mountains.
There is no evidence as to how or by what authority it had been ld. It did not claim to be acting anything like a constitution or gnic law. Its members had heard, no doubt, that clergymen and lay- e in other states were holding such meetings for a common action to edvantage of the Church in their localities, and believing that there ineed of united action to care for the interests of the Church in Ver- ot they held the first convention."
he lay delegates to that first convention from this parish were: Caleb a:on, Luther Stone, Zadok Hard and Nathan Canfield.
e principal business of this convention was the appointment of ers. Giddings, delegate from Manchester, and Todd, Arlington rep-
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ST. JAMES' EPISCOPAL CHURCH, ARLINGTON
resentative to the state Legislature, as a committee to endeavor to cure an Act of the Legislature for the purpose of securing to the Ch the possession of its Glebe Lands.
The Glebe Land Grants was the subject of a long and tedious li tion for many years. This litigation resulted finally in the securit half of the lands to the Church, the rest being lost by a technic (See "Documentary History of the Church in Vermont.")
On September 19, 1792, the second convention of the Chur( Vermont was held in Manchester with two clergymen present, the , James Nichols and the Rev. Daniel Barber and seventeen lay dele from seven parishes. The Journal of the Diocese mentions onl, organization.
There was manifest need of Episcopal supervision.
During the period from 1764 when lay services were conduct Captain Jehiel Hawley for upwards of twenty years, augmente occasional services by clergymen, notably the Rev. Gideon Bostwic Great Barrington, Massachusetts, up to the present date (1792 Episcopal Church in Vermont had no bishop.
A bishop was needed to provide clergymen for the parishes, ar ordain them; to take care that both in doctrine and manner of life clergy who ministered were performing their priestly office in ac ance with the doctrines of the Gospel as this Church had received Not only in Vermont, but in other states, the Church had been partially functioning because of this serious deficiency.
The Convention of the Church in Vermont which was held in let on September 18, 1793, was called for the election of a bishop.
Four clergymen, the Rev. James Nichols, the Rev. Daniel Barbe Rev. Bethuel Chittenden, of Shelburne, and the Rev. J. C. Ogd Hartland, appeared, who with eighteen lay delegates represented teen churches.
A Standing Committee for recommending candidates for Hol ders was appointed, consisting of the Rev. Messrs. Barber, Catlin, ] ols, and Chittenden and Messrs. Baldwin and Hard.
The Rev. Daniel Barber and Col. M. Lyon were appointed de to the General Convention. A Committee was also appointed to for a conveyance of the S. P. G. Lands.
Most important of all, a committee consisting of the Rev. M Nichols, Ogden and Chittenden, and Messrs. M. Lyons, T. Squier George McEckron was appointed to nominate a bishop.
On the next day the convention elected the Rev. Edward Bass, R of St. Paul's Church, Newbury, Massachusetts to be Bishop of Ver:
The records of this convention stated that the choice was made liberately, reverently and unanimously." A letter informing h the convention's action was prepared and sent to him, promising
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TWO BISHOPS-ELECT FAILED
on his acceptance the necessary steps would be taken for his con- cition. The reply of Dr. Bass, dated January 2; 1794, was in the ure of an acceptance on the condition that "only temporary visita- 0; should be required of him until, by the increase of the Lands, he old be able to live in his proper district." In other words he said in ict: "I shall accept, provided you do not require my constant resi- re."
) view of the importance of this election and its very strange re- Inl, the account of which will soon be recited, it will be of interest to cme acquainted somewhat with the character and personality of Dr.
brn in Dorchester, Massachusetts, November 23, 1726, Edward Bass igraduated with honors from Harvard College in 1744. He pursued re ogical studies and was licensed to preach in the Congregational de- nation. As evidence of the theological character of contemporary valemic work, Bass's master's thesis bore the title of: "Will the blessed the future world after the last Judgment make use of articulate @th and will that be Hebrew?" He took the positive side of the etion. (The New England Anglican Clergy in the American Rev- hon, by the late Charles Mampoteng, M.A., also Addison "Life of asbp Bass," p. 7.)
dI 1752 Mr. Bass left the Congregationalists and went into the min- er of the Episcopal Church, making the journey to England for ordi- tn.
in Ater his return from England he took charge of St. Paul's Church, ope bury, Massachusetts.
rbI is related that before Mr. Bass took charge of this church he passed gor the inspection of Warden Atkins, who was led to remark:
ede"Tell, gentlemen, he pares an apple and lights a pipe more like a neman than any of the other candidates you have brought to me." lison "Life of Bishop Bass," p. 14.)
During the Revolution Mr. Bass, who is described as having been a der mild Tory," with reluctance conformed in the use of the Liturgy tofr as respected the King and the Royal Family, to the wishes of his [i] and the public sentiment of New England.
O account of this the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in uit gn Parts withdrew his salary as missionary.
E ends, however, aided him to continue in the discharge of his min- seal duties. Historians estimate him not decisively pro-American but Veni mild way too compliant to the rebels."
nadEs success in being elected to the Episcopate is regarded as due not o If; intellectual force or brilliancy but to his benevolence and simple isinblity.
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ST. JAMES' EPISCOPAL CHURCH, ARLINGTON
On June 4, 1789, Mr. Bass was elected Bishop of the Churchdi Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Application was made for his secration to the Bishops of New York and Pennsylvania.
Since the election was irregular, the churches in Massachusetts New Hampshire not being in union with the Protestant Episo Church in the United States, the papers relating to it were laid bu the General Convention at Philadelphia, July 30, 1789. At this these two churches in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, having fun ally agreed to the constitution of the Protestant Episcopal Church in h United States were admitted into union with the convention.
No steps, however, were taken for his consecration and on Septe: 19, 1793, Dr. Bass was elected Bishop of Vermont.
However, before the reply of Dr. Bass had been received to his fication of election there seems to have been much activity and ec astical politics brewing in the minds of certain members of the corn tion to advance the cause of another to fill this important office.
On February 27, 1794, a special convention of the diocese was at Manchester. This was a little less than six months after the pre convention had elected the Rev. Dr. Bass.
At this convention Col. John A. Graham nominated for bishop a. tive and friend of his, the Rev. Samuel Peters, D.D.
While the convention was in session the reply of Dr. Bass to his fication of election was received and read by the Secretary.
Some members of the convention thereupon insisted that the rep Dr. Bass was unsatisfactory, that the Church in Vermont must h resident bishop. This plan seems to have been devised deliberate. friends of Dr. Peters.
The tide was then turned in favor of the new candidate and h elected. It is recorded, however, that the Rev. Bethuel Chittender opposed to the election of Dr. Peters, and that he wrote him frankly ing him the reasons for his opposition.
Whatever the objections were, on the part of some, to this hasty to say the least, ill-advised election, it seems to have been accepted.
There was no Chancellor to whom to turn for decision as to the ity of the election and no constitution to consult.
They therefore took steps to consummate the election by seek speedy consecration.
The convention, through its officers first made application t Archbishop of Canterbury. In response the Archbishop made obje by pointing out that the Act of Parliament permitting the consec of bishops for foreign countries was limited to three for one cot and that three American bishops had already been consecrated.
The fact that Dr. Peters was residing in England was also pointe as a barrier to his consecration as one of the canons of the Am
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TWO BISHOPS-ELECT FAILED
buscopal Church forbade the consecration of anyone as bishop who had ic resided and officiated as a clergyman in the United States for three e's previous to his being consecrated.
toCol. Graham who had been sent by the Vermont convention to Lon- isc to present the case of Dr. Peters thus failed in his mission. Dr. lers then appealed to the Scottish Bishop Skinner, one of the con- istators of Bishop Seabury, with the result that Bishop Skinner gave it s is opinion that application should be made to the American bishops. The American bishops were in turn appealed to in 1795. A further Diplication arose from the fact that Vermont had not as yet been ditted into union with the other churches in the United States. The riding Bishop therefore ruled that Vermont's Bishop-elect could not ionsecrated until such time as the Church in Vermont had acceded et he general ecclesiastical constitution of the Church in the United pies.
nother serious obstacle in the way of securing a bishop for Vermont v& the fact that the legislature of the state had taken possession of all ora chartered lands on which the Church had chiefly relied for the sup- of a bishop.
y the Act of legislature the Glebes were appropriated to the support grata of all the religious teachers in the several towns; and the lots filtered for the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign a s were appropriated to the support of the common schools. This rek legislature did in 1794. P
thi was a serious blow to the progress of the Episcopal Church in Ver- ataket, because she was thus deprived of her chartered rights. The de- sn of the legislature was made on the ground that "all lands in this aj granted by the British government to the Society of the Propaga- dD. of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, after the Revolution became vested kl ne state."
he late Charles Mampoteng was the author of historical papers re- astig to the clergy of this period. These papers have been edited and 1 ished in the Historical Magazine of the Protestant Episcopal Church s issue of December, 1940 by the associate editor Dr. Edgar L. Penn- gon, under the title: "The New England Anglican Clergy of the rerican Revolution."
fter reading this article the conclusion seems inevitable that the Cese escaped a period of dire unhappiness through its failure to con- ate its first bishop-elect.
The most obnoxious Anglican clergyman," says the author, "en- colitered by the Connecticut Whigs was the Rev. Samuel Peters of «ron (Connecticut). This ambitious and imprudent gentleman in sove for the King and hierarchy aped the British nobility; having a Anhtry house in the forest and keeping a coach. 1.
ted the
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ST. JAMES' EPISCOPAL CHURCH, ARLINGTON
"Scorn for the Whigs became an outstanding characteristic of - tall, muscular and pompous priest.
"As patriotic demonstrations grew in fervor prior to the war, he a prone to write inflammatory epistles about the dissenting clergy.
For example, "The Episcopal Church must soon fall victim to rage of the Puritan nobility, if the old Serpent, that dragon is bound." (Van Tyne, "Loyalists in American Revolution," p. 110.)
"Further endearing himself to the militant clergy of Whig sympat he wrote that "spiritual iniquity rides in high places with halberts, s tols and swords."
"The patriots finally tired of his intemperate outbursts, and in Aug it 1774, a mob dragged him out of his house, intent upon tarring feathering him; but more moderate counsel prevailed.
"Peters had met the crowd arrayed in his robes for protection.
"But the exasperated Whigs seized him to the "damage of his ments," carried him to the horse-block behind the meeting house, forced him to read a prepared confession, whereupon he was freed.
"He left at once for Boston and then to England, where he continued to lash the Americans with his pen.
"Before leaving the country, however, he threw a scare into the a triot's ranks when his letter to his mother, telling of the dispatch o regiments and warships to hang the rebels, was intercepted.
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