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 For I 
 
 DELIVI 
 
 % 
 
ADDRESS, ^ '''A ^' 
 
 IN MEMORY OF 
 
 i!L .iEV. EBEf(EZER DIBBIEE, D. D., 
 
 For Fifty=one Years the Minister of St. Johns 
 
 Church, Stamford. 
 
 DELIVERED IN ST. JOHN'S CHURCH, SUNDAY. MAY 29, 1881, 
 
 BT 
 
 ¥l\e f^ev. Willikin ¥ktlodk, D. ©., 
 
 RECTOR. 
 
 STAMFORD, CONN.! 
 
 STAMFORD HERALD PRINT. 
 1881. 
 
 >\ 
 
 
ino] 
 
 ?ifcr//>^i.l^«* 
 
 NOTE. 
 
 On Wednesday, May 25th, a granite 
 tomb-stone was placed over the remains 
 of Dr. Dibblee in the burial ground of 
 St. John's church. It was provided by 
 Mrs. John W. Leeds, in grateful memory 
 of the care of the late rector for her 
 mother, who was left as a young girl 
 under his guardianship by her loyalist 
 parents during the Revolutionary war. 
 
 W. T. 
 
 /reel 
 
 ezei 
 
 ter 
 
 *'rej 
 
 tion 
 
 sion 
 
 Pro] 
 
 Pari 
 
 178^J 
 
 pari: 
 
 writ 
 
 tem] 
 
 attei 
 
 any 
 
 that 
 
 and 
 
 foun 
 
 mad< 
 
 of n 
 
 asC] 
 
 have 
 
 madt 
 
 of hi 
 
 He 
 
 Dibl] 
 
 16, 1 
 
 1734, 
 
 preac 
 
 havir 
 
 sion. 
 
 Chur 
 
 quail: 
 
 with 
 
 Strat] 
 
 dent ( 
 
 wlios* 
 
 tutor 
 
 comn 
 
 the ni 
 
 terwa 
 
ADDRESS. 
 
 %' 
 
 In connection witli the placing of a 
 monumental tombstone over his remains, 
 ,)y last Thui ' f i day, I i)rop()se this morning to 
 ^/recall the life and ministry of Dr. Elx n- 
 ezer Dihblee, for tifty-one years minis- 
 ter of St. John's ehurch. In 1745 he 
 "read prayers" here, before his ordina- 
 tion. From 1748 to 1784 he was a mis- 
 sionary of the Ei^lish Societ}' for the 
 Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign 
 Parts ; and after the Revolution, from 
 1784 to 1799, he was the rector of the 
 parish. His life has never yet been 
 written ; and so far as I know, the at- 
 tempt I miike this morning is the first 
 attempt that has ever been made to give 
 any complete record of a life and a work 
 that were very influential in their day 
 and very worthy of record. And as the 
 founder of this parish, whose teachings 
 made our predecessors and the ancestors 
 of many among us whatever they were 
 as Christians and as Churchmen, and so 
 have shaped the intluences which have 
 made many of us what we are, a record 
 of his life may interest us personally. 
 
 He was the eldest son of Wakefield 
 Dibblee, and was born at Danliury, April 
 16, 1715, graduated at Yale College in 
 1734, and for some time was a licensed 
 preacher among the Congregationalists, 
 having been brought up in that persua- 
 sion. He confijrmed to the Episcopal 
 Church, however, having been made ac- 
 quainted with it through his intimacy 
 with Dr. Samuel Johnson, rector <jf 
 Stratford parish, and afterwards Presi- 
 dent of Columbia (then King's) College, 
 whose conversion to Episcopacy while a 
 tutor in Yale College made such great 
 commotion in Connecticut. And from 
 the number of baptisms he performed af- 
 terwards, in his native jjlace, of persons 
 
bearing Ins own namo, we may infer 
 tliat ho brought many of liis relatives in- 
 to the Church. 
 
 The dominant sect in Connecticut at 
 this time was the Congregational body. 
 It was the form of religi<m established 
 by law, and was very intolerant of any 
 other. Every person was bound to pay 
 a tax for the supi)()rt of religicm, in pro- 
 portion to his i)roperty, and it was only 
 recently that the "jn'ofessors of the 
 Church of England," as they were called, 
 had obtiiined permission to celebrate Di- 
 vine worship according to the liturgy of 
 that church, and to have the taxes they 
 paid appropriated to tfce support of their 
 own ministers. One of the clergy writes, 
 in 1742, to the Society in England, "The 
 magistrates of Connecticut continue their 
 former violent methods, especially against 
 our new ct)nformists, and not long since 
 committed four of them, contributors 
 towards building a church, to gaol, for 
 luit contributing towards the building of 
 a meeting-housn. " 
 
 In December, 1742, the town of Stam- 
 ford granted the petition of the clmrch 
 people residing here f )r a plot of ground 
 — it was 45 feet long by 35 feet wide — on 
 Avhich to build a church, and in order 
 that it might not damage the town it was 
 placed on a ledge of rocks outside the vil- 
 lage, on the edge of an impassable swamp 
 to the east and north. The first church 
 was built in 1743, and the site is now 
 covered by the highway in front of our 
 chai)el building. 
 
 The times were ripe for the establish- 
 ment of our cluirch in New England, and 
 its ci)uservative intluence wiu: very neces- 
 sary. Tht^ "sober Dissenters," as the 
 old-fashioned, orderly Ccmgregational 
 folk were called by Churchmen, liad not 
 been able to keep out the fanaticism of 
 Whitetield and the followers of Wesley. 
 ]Nb tliodisni had recently arisen in Eng- 
 land, and had got over into the American 
 Colonies, wliere, unrestrained by the 
 presence and control of its earnest and 
 
 m 
 
 I 
 
' infer 
 ves iii- 
 
 bicut at 
 1 ])()(ly. 
 hlished 
 of any 
 to pay 
 in pro- 
 as only 
 of the 
 J called, 
 rate Di- 
 jurgy of 
 ies they 
 of their 
 J writes, 
 a, "The 
 lue theii- 
 ^ against 
 iig since 
 ributors 
 gaol, for 
 Llding of 
 
 a Stam- 
 ^, el lurch 
 ; ground 
 vide — on 
 in order 
 m it was 
 e the vil- 
 e swamp 
 t church 
 } is now 
 it of our 
 
 'stahlish- 
 and, and 
 ry neces- 
 ' as the 
 l^gational 
 had not 
 iticisni of 
 Wesley. 
 1 in Eng- 
 \nierican 
 by the 
 H'liest and 
 
 I 
 
 pious founder, it ran into many and vio- 
 Ifut t^xcesses. The followers of White- 
 lield, however, were still more fanati(Md 
 and ungoverned. "The letters fron' this 
 country" to the English Society "abound 
 with the wild doings of enthusiasm." 
 "Not only Teachers, but Taylors, Sho(»- 
 makers, and other Mechanicks, and even 
 Women, Boys and Girls, were become 
 (as their term is) exhorttrs. From all 
 whieli, this advantage hath by God's 
 kind Providence arisen, that it hatli re- 
 markably engaged serious People's At- 
 tenti<m to our Liturgy and the Doctrines 
 of our clergy ; and this hath brought 
 many considerable Families, more espe- 
 cially at Stratford under the administra- 
 tion of the Reverend Mr. Johnson, to be 
 added to the Church." 
 
 The first servici s held here were by 
 the Rev. Mr. Caner, missionarv at Fair- 
 field, in 1727. The missionary at Rye, 
 Mr. Wetmore, also officiated here from 
 time to time. Mr. Caner reports, in 
 174:4, that "there have been large acces- 
 sions to the Church of Persons who ap- 
 pear to have a serious sense of Religio.i, 
 at Norwalk, Ri'lgetield, and Stamford." 
 And in 1747 he writes, "Likewise the 
 good peopie of Stamford, hitherto com- 
 prehended within the mission of Fair- 
 field, have built a Church, to which they 
 have given the Name of St. John, and 
 they have conveyed to the Society by a 
 Deed of Gift, an House and seven acres 
 of Land, for the use of the Rector of that 
 Church iov the Time being for ever ; and 
 they oblige themselves to pay him £20 
 Sterling yearly, on condition that the So- 
 ciety will vouclisafe to aj^point a vorthy 
 Missionary to St. John's Church iu 
 Stamford.'" 
 
 The Stamford churchmen made two 
 unsuccessful attempts to secure a resi- 
 dent mmister. Owing to political rea- 
 sons the English Government had posi- 
 tively refused ta allow the consecration 
 of a bishop for the colonies, and they 
 were therefore, until after the Revolu- 
 
6 
 
 tiounry War, luidcr the eoclcsiftstioal jur- 
 isdiction of the Bishop of Loiulon, uiul 
 nil thosowho desirt'il to receive Holy Or- 
 ders were under the necessity of under- 
 taking i long and perilous voyage to 
 England to receive them. The Stamford 
 chia*ch-i)eoi)le "contributed considerably 
 to jiKsist Mr. Isaac Brown, when he vvtuit 
 home for Orders, with the hoi)e tl)at he 
 might have been sent to them, but were 
 disappointed by his coming back for 
 Brookhaven." They afterwards assisted 
 Mr. Richardson Miner, who was a Con- 
 gregational minister at Trumbull from 
 1730 to 1744, to go home for Holy Or- 
 ders : l)ut he was taken bv the French 
 on his i)assage, and after his release from 
 continement, while on his way from Port 
 Louis in France to London, he died of a 
 fever at Salisbury, to the givat sorrow of 
 his waiting and dependent family. Not 
 discouraged by repeated failure, they 
 sent Mr. Dibblee. He had declined a 
 call to succeed Mr. Caiier, who had re- 
 cently become the minister of King's 
 Chapel, in Boston, and had accepted the 
 charge of the Stamford church on condi- 
 tiou that it would pay his expenses to 
 England for Orders. Two brothers, 
 John Lloyd of Stamford, who lived in 
 what is now called the Davenj^ort House 
 in West Park, and Henry Lloyd, of 
 Boston, afterwards of Lloyd's Neck, on 
 Long Island, paid his expenses, which 
 were afterwards repaid, to them in great 
 jiart by the other parishioners. Mr. 
 Dibblee had served ilie parish as lay- 
 reader for a year and a half, and went to 
 England for Orders in 1747. He was or- 
 dained Deacon in the Parish Church of 
 Kensington, on Wednesday, August 3d, 
 1748, by Thomas, Archbishop of Canter- 
 bury, and by the same prelate and in the 
 same place ordained Priest on Sunday, 
 Aiigust 7tli, 1748. On the 11th of Aug- 
 ust, Edmund, Bishop of London, granted 
 him license to officiate in the Province of 
 New England in America, then imder the 
 ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Bishop 
 
 f 
 
 M 
 
 re{ 
 
 Pil 
 
 islj 
 ve{ 
 tio 
 
al jnr- 
 11, uiul 
 >lyOr- 
 luiiler- 
 
 imfom 
 Loriil)ly 
 e vvimt 
 that he 
 it were 
 ck for 
 iHsistetl 
 a C( Hi- 
 ll from 
 oly Or- 
 Frciicli 
 se from 
 )ni Port 
 lied of a 
 )rrow of 
 y. Not 
 •e, they 
 cliued a 
 had re- 
 Kmg's 
 pted the 
 11 condi- 
 >eiiHes to 
 )rothers, 
 ivid in 
 L-t House 
 loyd, of 
 Sack, ou 
 ^ which 
 in great 
 Mr. 
 ii as hiy- 
 weiit to 
 e was or- 
 Ihiireh of 
 igust 3d, 
 ,f Cauter- 
 ,nd in the 
 Sunday, 
 of Aug- 
 . granted 
 ovince oi 
 luider the 
 ,ti Bishop 
 
 of London, liis (l«H*larution of coiiforDiity 
 to the Cliuri'li of Kiigland having been 
 subserihed the same <lay. On the 17th 
 day of August, 17tS, tlic Society for the 
 Pi-oi)agation of the (lospel in TM)reigii 
 ]*arts appointed liini its missionary at 
 Stamford and (Jreenwieli, at a yearly 
 jniiiuity or ]»ension of twenty poumls of 
 Liwfnl money »)f Great JJritain, to eom- 
 inenee from St. John the Hai)tist's day, 
 171H. His tirst jMitry iu the Parish 
 Ki'gisti'r is, "Arrived to my mission 
 Oetobt r '2()th, 1748, and began to do duty 
 tliti Siindav following." 
 
 So his half-century of work began. 
 His immediate charge? ineluded Green- 
 w*ieh, ami what are now in i)art the 
 towns of Hedford on the north, and New 
 Canaan and Darien on th(! east, and the 
 present town of Stamford. He was a 
 genuine missionary, however, and his 
 irecjuent excursions t(H»k liim to Kye, 
 White Plains, Peekskill, Northcastle and 
 Salem, ill the New York Colony, and to 
 Kidgetield, Danbury, Norwalk, Kedding, 
 Newtown, and as far north as Litchfield, 
 Sharon and Salisbury in Connecticut, 
 and to Huntington on Long Island, in all 
 w hich phn^es he preached the Gosixd and 
 administered the Sacraments. He wa« 
 a great friend of that generous church- 
 man, St. George Talbot, whose l)enef ac- 
 tions our own i>arish, and many others, 
 enjoyed at that time, and some of them 
 are enjoying still. Mr. Dibblee and Mr. 
 Tal]K)t made several journeys together, 
 encouraging and strengthening the scat- 
 tered parishes of the Church, and the 
 influence and counsel of owr old rector 
 inspired and guided the beneficent use 
 of Mr. Talbot's wealth. 
 
 The chief sources of information as to 
 Mr. Dibl)lee's ministrv are the annual 
 rei)orts he made to the Sfx^iety for the 
 Propagation of the Gospel, and the Par- 
 ish Kegister and Records, which were 
 very well kept except during the Kevolu- 
 tionary War. 
 
 In 1750 he reports that his labors are 
 
att<'iHlt'(l with visible success in ench part 
 of liis extensive missiou. He had a very 
 iiunierouH nmUeiico on Christmas Day, 
 and many Dissenters among them, some 
 of wlioni deehired they never saw a more 
 regular or better ordered Christian as- 
 sembly. 
 
 In 1757 he writes that he continues in 
 a eonstant painful discliargeof the duties 
 of his mission, and his church is in a 
 l)eaceful, increasing state ; and also that 
 he has officiated occasionally to the poor 
 people of Salem, and wants Bibles and 
 Prayer-b(X)ks for Salem and Stamford. 
 
 In 1761 we find the introduction of the 
 parochial collections, — they were voted 
 by the i)arish to be made at the evening 
 service. Tlie rector was supported in 
 part by the Society's grant of £20 a year, 
 ill part by the ministerial rates or taxes, 
 and in part by voluntary subscription. 
 
 In 1763 he writes that he has the hap- 
 piness to live among a people who in 
 general are of a cpiiet and peaceful dis- 
 position, and make a religious improve- 
 ment of the advantages they enjoy. In 
 this year the inhabitants of Stamford 
 numbered 2,792. 
 
 In 1764 the chapel at Horseneck was 
 often much crowded when he did duty 
 there on the second Sunday of each 
 month. Three Sunday evenings in the 
 month he officiated at Old Greenwich, 
 or Riverside. 
 
 In 1766 he reporis that there are in his 
 care 186 heads of families, and 62 actual 
 communicants. 
 
 In 1775, the year before the War, he 
 reports that notwithstanding the melan- 
 clK)ly state of the Province and the emi- 
 gration of some heads of families (to New 
 Brunswick and Nova Sicotia), there re- 
 main at Stamford and Greenwich about 
 227 families, 'professors of the church, 
 and about 90 communicants. 
 
 In 1781, the. Society's report states 
 that no accounts had been received di- 
 rectly from the missionaries who still re- 
 side in the New England Colonies ; but 
 
 i 
 
 f 
 
 ot 
 
 thf 
 
 ica 
 
 tht 
 
 wej 
 
 hei 
 
 ma 
 
 coi 
 
 em 
 
9 
 
 ijich pftvt 
 u\ a very 
 ittft Day, 
 3in, somo 
 w a more 
 istiau aH- 
 
 itiniiGB in 
 Dhe duties 
 1 is in a 
 [ hIbo that 
 ) the poor 
 5il)les and 
 Stamford, 
 tion of the 
 rere vo^ed 
 le evening 
 )ported in 
 i20 a year, 
 >8 or taxes, 
 sription. 
 IS the hap- 
 ile who in 
 rfaceful dis- 
 Ls improve- 
 enjoy. In 
 : Stamford 
 
 seneck was 
 le did dutv 
 ,y of each 
 'ngs in the 
 Greenwich, 
 
 :e are in his 
 id 62 actual 
 
 the War, he 
 the melan- 
 ,nd the emi- 
 liesCtoNew 
 i), there re- 
 liwich about 
 the church, 
 
 •eport states 
 received di- 
 who still re- 
 
 lolonies ; but 
 
 that ther<» is reason to believe, from gen- 
 eral reiK)rtH, that thoir condition is mnch 
 better than it has been, and tkey live 
 more (piietly, though their churches are 
 still shut up. Tliis was during the War 
 of tht^ llevolution. It apjK^ars, howover, 
 that the (^lergy were not absolutely hin- 
 dered from offi(dating — jn'obably in pri- 
 vat(5 houses — for I have seen two manu- 
 S( rijjt wrmous on the Healing of Naaman, 
 on wliieh is the notti, in I)r, DibbUn^'s 
 handwriting, "Preaclied Mar. Ifi, 1777." 
 It is matter of history that the Epis- 
 copal clergy in tlu^ northern colonies 
 generally were loyal to the king. They 
 often i)ersisted in using the prayer for 
 •'our Sovereign Lord King George," 
 when to do so wixs jis perilous as it was 
 in the South during our late Civil War 
 to pray for the l^resident of the United 
 States. The War ai)peared to the loyal- 
 ists of that time in very much the same 
 light as the Rebelli(m appeared to us, and 
 we cannot greatly blame them for their 
 loyalty. In the parish at Newt-own the 
 fearless rector read the Prayer for the 
 King's Majesty with the muskets of 
 American soldiers levelled at his head, 
 having been forbidden to read it on peril 
 of his life. Many of the clergy were im- 
 jniscmed or banished, and many escaped 
 to Canada and the Provinces of New 
 Brunswick and Nova Scotia. Mr. Dib- 
 blee does not appear to have left his post, 
 though his eldest son, Fyler, and the 
 youngest, Frederick, escaped to New 
 Brunswick, and one historian speaks of 
 himself as having been "cruelly dragged 
 through mire and dirt." His parishion- 
 ers were well represented on both sides 
 — his own third sou, Ebenezer, went into 
 the New York Colony and took the Amer- 
 ican side — and the passions aroused by 
 the war must have divided the church as 
 well as the c<jmmunity. And not only 
 here, but everywhere, the fact that so 
 many of the Tories were Churchmen, and 
 conscientiously opposed to the war, weak- 
 ened the church in the estimation of the 
 
't 
 
 10 
 
 I 
 
 I, i I : 
 
 !,t 
 
 te- 
 
 jKoplc ill oxnural, and created a pivjudice 
 ugaiiist it which it took a long tinae to 
 overcome. 
 
 The Episcopal Parishes had to suifer 
 great loss from the flight or banishment 
 » of many of their members, and the con- 
 Hsoation of tht ir pr» perty • and then, in 
 1785, from the withdrawal of the aid 
 hitherto extended by the Propagation. 
 Society for the support of tlu ir clergy. 
 For in that year tlie Society communi- 
 cated with Mr. Dibblee, and through him 
 to the other missionaries employed in this 
 y te, that it could not consistently with 
 \ . ''arter contLivie to employ any mis- 
 •,i;mi,i ies except in the Plantations, Col- 
 
 r' 1 and Factories belcmging to the 
 i. ; of Great Britain, and that their 
 l)resent salaries would be continued no 
 longer than Michaelmas next. 
 
 Tliis action of the socioty in England 
 threw the burden of Mr. Dibblee's sup- 
 port entirely on the parish, which imme- 
 diately increased his salary from £50 to 
 £G(), 13s., 4d., and renewed t lie union un- 
 der his "Parsonal Care" with Greenwich 
 parish, Stamford to have two thirds of 
 his service, and Greenwich one third. 
 Wliether Stamford and Greenwich to- 
 gether found it difficult to support him, 
 and were therefore contented to share 
 the service with still another parish in 
 order to share the respimsibility, or 
 whether the arrangement grew out of the 
 scarcity of clergy immediately after the 
 War, we cannot tell, but Mr. Dil)lee's 
 pastoral charge appears in 1785 to have 
 included Rye, to which he gave (me 
 fourth of his Sundays, and which provided 
 one fourth of his salary. In 3 788 consent 
 was voted by the parish that he should 
 give one Sunday in twelve to Rye, and 
 afterwards that he should go there "as 
 often as he may think best and for the 
 good of the Church." 
 
 Before the Revolution the parif>li seems 
 to have been organized after the Eng- 
 lish system, wbich now jm-vails in New 
 York Stati-: tlie "Professors of the 
 
 ^-? 
 
11 
 
 I prejudice 
 ig time to 
 
 d to suffer 
 )iiiiishmeiit 
 d the con- 
 ad then, in 
 of the aid 
 ropagation. 
 n ir clergy. 
 ' commuiii- 
 irough him 
 oyed in this 
 tently with 
 ly any mis- 
 ations, Col- 
 ing to the 
 that their 
 mtinued no 
 
 t. 
 
 in England 
 bblee's sup- 
 vhich imme- 
 irom £50 to 
 le union uu- 
 . Greenwich 
 wo thirds of 
 one third, 
 eenwich to- 
 ipport him, 
 ed to share 
 parish in 
 isibility, or 
 wout of the 
 y after the 
 ^'r. DiV)lee's 
 .785 to have 
 gave one 
 ich provided 
 1 788 consent 
 it lie should 
 ,o Rye, and 
 go there "as 
 and for the 
 
 paridi seems 
 ■ter the Eng- 
 
 vails in New 
 bsors of the 
 
 I 
 
 4 
 
 Church of England'' meeting eviTV Eas- 
 ter Monday to elect Wardens and Vestry- 
 men, who constituted the legal C(>v])ora- 
 tion. After the War, however, it was 
 re-constituted in accordance with the 
 Laws of the State of Connecticut — th(>se 
 who desired to belong to it being legally 
 warned under waiTant of Abraham Dav- 
 enport, Justice of the Peace, on Septem- 
 tember 20, 1784, and assembling accord- 
 ingly on the 80tli, to tVtrm an Ecclesiasti- 
 cal Society. By act of the Legislature 
 the title to the property hitluTto held for 
 church purposes by the Propjigation 
 Society in England^ passed to the parish 
 itself, which now holds tlie Glebe lands 
 in trust for the use of the Rector. 
 
 The time had now arrived whtm the 
 Episcop.d i'hurch in the independent 
 United States could take measures for se- 
 curing the Ei)isc(»pate, and uuist do so if 
 it would not cUe out, for it woiild hence- 
 forth be impossible to rely outlaw Bishop 
 of Lt)ndon for the ordination of its clergy. 
 The tirst step towards it was taken in 
 Connecticut, where ten of the clergy met 
 in Wo<«lbm'y, in a house still standing, 
 and made choice of the Rev. Sanniel 
 Seabury to go to England, and set^k for 
 eonsecraticm at the hands of the English 
 Bishops. Faihng in this he went to 
 Scotland, and was consecrated by three 
 of the Scottish bishops on the 14tli of Eol> - 
 jm o yy , 1784, as Bishop of Connecticut, in 
 which office he served nearly 12 yeurs. 
 Provision had to lunnade for his sui)p()rt, 
 and in 1788, (Feb. 8th) this i)arish sent a 
 a lay-delegate to the c(mventi(»n at Wat- 
 crbury (Feb. IJUh) to confer with the 
 representatives of other j^ii'i-'^hes in the 
 matter. This a])i)ears to have been the 
 first Diocesan Convention. 
 
 Having st^cured tlie Episcopate, the 
 next step was to adapt the English 
 I'raytU' Book to the use of the American 
 church. So far as the changes rendered 
 neci'ssary by the national independence 
 were c(>ncerned, the task was easy, and the 
 Prayers for the I*resident and Congresa 
 
 ^^iy/^ 
 
I 
 
 1, 
 
 ;< ; 
 
 12 
 
 were substituted for the Prayers for 
 the King's Majesty and for the High 
 Court of Parhament. But many, espec- 
 ially in the Southern States — Pennsylva- 
 nia bein^ counted as a Southern State — 
 desired radical changes, aflfei^ting doc- 
 trine and order, and it is largely due to 
 Bishop Seabury and his clergy that more 
 variation has not been made between the 
 American and the English Prayer Books, 
 and that such changes as have been 
 made are for the most part evidently 
 changes for the better. But it was hard 
 for Dr. Dibblee, then one of the oldest 
 clergy in the Diocese, to reconcile him- 
 self to much change, and though our 
 present Prayer Book was adopted in 1789, 
 he continued to use the English Book for 
 3 years longer. I have recently seen a 
 letter, in the hand-writing of Bishop 
 Seabury, addressed on the 22nd of Feb- 
 ruary, 1792, to Mr. Dibblee, couched in 
 terms of the highest personal considera- 
 tion, expressing the desire that he would 
 review in his own mind the grounds and 
 principles on which he had hitherto re- 
 frained from the use of the Prayer Book 
 of the Church in the United States. It 
 is an admirable letter, every way, and 
 seems to have had its desired eflfect, for I 
 find in the Parish Record, under date of 
 9th of April, 1792, that the Parish passed 
 a vote to adopt the new constitution or 
 liturgy of the Church, as agre; d ujion 
 by the Bishop and clergy of this State, 
 provided that it is agreeable to Rev. Mr. 
 Dibblee. 
 
 But the old rector was growing feeble 
 year by year, for he had passed four- 
 score, and on the ninth day of April, 
 1798, it was voted that the War- 
 dens apply to the Bishop of Connecticut 
 for an Assistant-Minister. Very consid- 
 erate were the parishioners in all their 
 action — their letter to him and his reply 
 are both extant, and show the affection 
 and respect subsisting on both sides. 
 The Rev. Calvin White seems to have 
 become the A«sistant, with the right of 
 
 •w 
 
13 
 
 'rayers for 
 f the High 
 any, espec- 
 -Peinisylva- 
 erii State — 
 eoting cloc- 
 gely due to 
 ry that more 
 between the 
 L-ayer Books, 
 lia\e been 
 rt evidently 
 i it was liard 
 ►f the oldest 
 3oncile him- 
 though o\ir 
 .pted in 1789, 
 lish Book for 
 ently seen a 
 y of Bishop 
 >2nd of Feb- 
 I, couched in 
 lal considera- 
 ;hat he would 
 grounds and 
 hitherto re- 
 Prayer Book 
 d States. It 
 ery way, and 
 (d effect, fori 
 mder date of 
 Parish passed 
 institution or 
 agreed upon 
 of this State, 
 3 to Rev. Mr. 
 
 ;rowing feeble 
 passed four- 
 day of April, 
 the War- 
 Connecticut 
 Very consid- 
 s in all their 
 and his reply 
 the affection 
 both sides, 
 jeems to have 
 li the right of 
 
 succession, though he did not succeed 
 him in the rectorship. On the 9th of 
 May, 1799, Dr. Dibblee died, aged 84 
 years. From the recollections of an old 
 member of the church, deceased a few 
 years since, I have gathered that he died 
 of a tumor in the face — she rtmiembered 
 his preaching with liis face bound up in 
 a doth. 
 
 His wife, Joanna Bates, died 3 years 
 before him, and her remains, with those 
 of his daughter, (probably Joanna, the 
 eldest,) rest in the same place with his. 
 His son, Frederick, a graduate of King's 
 College, (now Columbia) became a cler- 
 gvman, and Rector of Woodstock, N. B. , 
 and died in 1826. 
 
 "The funeral of Dr. Dibblee," says 
 the 1 arrative, "was attended by a large 
 concourse of people, and he went to the 
 grave like a shock of corn fully ripe for 
 the garner." Ten days before his death 
 the parish met, and placed on record a 
 a recognition of "the valuable benefits 
 received through the faithful service and 
 unremitting labours" of the rector. These 
 labours had not been confined to his own 
 parish. He was the first member of the 
 "College of Doctors," or Ctmncil of Ad- 
 vice to the Bishop, now called the Stand- 
 ing Committee, and from the beginning al- 
 most to tlie end of his ministrv he Avas 
 often in the adjoining towns ] (reaching 
 and baptizing. He baptized, altogether, 
 over 3,500 persons, and from the 
 mother church of St. John have 
 grown the i>arishes of Christ Church, 
 Gret!nwich ; (with the parishes at Round 
 Hill and Glenville in that town,) St. 
 Mark's, New Canaan ; St. Luke's, Dar- 
 ien ; St. Andrt'w's, Stamford ; and Em- 
 manuel Mission Church, Stamford. 
 
 It was a fitting thing, therefore, that 
 we placed above his tomb last Wednes- 
 day the massive granite which so well 
 represents the firnaiessaiul strength of liis 
 character and principles, surmounted by 
 the floriated cross which tells the story 
 of the Christian made poi'fect through 
 
 1 
 
II m %M m\ < \ ■ 
 
 14 
 
 sufferings and triumphant over them, 
 with fitting words of commemoration 
 from the successor of the first American 
 bishop, whose counsels and whose la- 
 bours, which did so much to shape the 
 future of our church in this land, our old 
 rector so abundantly shared. 
 
 He rests from his labours, and his 
 works do follow him. 
 
 f, 
 
 I 
 
 lii 
 
 i 
 
 « 
 
k over them, 
 [nmemoration 
 jst American 
 id whose la- 
 to shape the 
 land, our old 
 I. 
 urs, and his 
 
 el 
 .4 
 
 7^ 
 
 '% 
 
r.>