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THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH 
 
 AND 
 
 Early Ecclesiastical Laws 
 of Connecticut 
 
 PRECEDED BY A CHAPTER ON 
 
 THE CHURCH IN AMERICA 
 
 BY, 
 
 JAMES "SHEPARD 
 
 REPRINTED FROM HIS 
 
 History of St. Mark's Church, New Britain, Conn. 
 
 AND OF ITS PREDECESSOR 
 
 Christ Church, Wethersfield and Berlin 
 
 new BRITAIN, CONN. 
 1908 
 
THE TITTLE, MOREHOUSE & TAYLOR COMPANY 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Foreword i 
 
 Index of Subjects iii 
 
 Index of Persons ix 
 
 I. The Church in America. 
 
 History 15 
 
 II. The Church in Connecticut. t 
 
 History 37 
 
 The Bishops of Connecticut : 
 
 Brief mention 105 
 
 Biographical Sketches : 
 
 Right Rev. Samuel Seabury, D.D 106 
 
 Right Rev. Abraham Jarvis, D.D 108 
 
 Right Rev. John Henry Hobart, D.D no 
 
 Right Rev. Thomas Church Brownell, D.D in 
 
 Right Rev. John Williams, D.D 112 
 
 Right Rev. Chauncey Bunce Brewster, D.D 114 
 
 Synopsis of Connecticut Laws relating to Ecclesiastical mat- 
 ters 1636-1821 116 
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Certificate by Bishop Seabury Facing page Z^ 
 
 Portrait of Bishop Seabury Facing page 106 
 
 Portrait of Bishop Jarvis Facing page 108 
 
 Portrait of Bishop Brownell Facing page in 
 
 Portrait of Bishop Williams Facing page 112 
 
 Portrait of Bishop Brewster Facing page 114 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 Although these pages were prepared especially as prelim- 
 inary matter for a local history, they are believed to be of 
 sufficient general interest for publication in a separate volume. 
 In fact, many who are not particularly interested in St. 
 Mark's Parish have expressed a desire to own this prelimi- 
 nary history, provided they could do so without buying also 
 five hundred and seventy-seven pages of local history that they 
 do not care for. In order to satisfy this demand we publish 
 this little hand-book of the Church of Connecticut. 
 
 We also take this opportunity to ask librarians, historians, 
 and genealogists to examine carefully into the merits and 
 scope of our History of St. Mark's Church. The "Church 
 Standard" of Philadelphia says that it is "a standard for 
 others to follow." 
 
 James Shepard. 
 New Britain, Conn., January, 1908. 
 
INDEX OF SUBJECTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Aberdeen, Scotland 31 
 
 Academy at Stratford 65 
 
 Acting Bishop 98 
 
 Adamites 38, 1 1 7 
 
 Africa 26, loi 
 
 African Mission School loi 
 
 Alabama 102 
 
 Almanac, first Churchman's ... 33 
 Almanac, first with Church Days, 20 
 
 Amboy, N. J 22 
 
 America 13 to 33 
 
 Anti-Episcopal Convention, 27, 28, 
 29, 30, 78, 79 
 
 Assessment of 1813 97 
 
 Atheism 125 
 
 Autographs of Churchmen .... 67 
 Baptism, first Episcopal in 
 
 Conn 42 
 
 Baptism, first in America 16 
 
 Baptism of children. 38,39,40,118, 
 
 121 
 Baptists, 40, 50, 55, 122, 123, 126, 127 
 
 Barkhamsted 94 
 
 Belfast, Me 16 
 
 Bible, approved editions 99 
 
 Bible, not read in public by the 
 
 Standing Order 76, 77 
 
 Bible, see Word 117 
 
 Bibles, for every family 122 
 
 Bibles, incorrect edition dis- 
 tributed 98 
 
 Bible & Prayer Book Society . . 97 
 Biographical notices of clergy, 92 
 Biographical Sketches, 106 to 115 
 
 Bishop Brownell, elected 100 
 
 Bishop Brownell's Western vis- 
 itation loi 
 
 Bishop, first consecration of in 
 
 America 33 
 
 Bishop, for New England 18 
 
 Bishop, invited to act 98 
 
 Bishop of Conn., elected, 31, 84, 92 
 Bishop of New York, elected . . 32 
 Bishop of Pennsylvania, elected, 32 
 Bishop of Vermont, elected ... 33 
 Bishop of Virginia, elected .... 32 
 
 Bishop, petitioned for 23, 25 
 
 Bishop Seabury, elected 84 
 
 Bishop's Address, first printed, 95 
 
 Bishops, appointment of opposed, 25, 
 
 21, 28, 29, 30, 78, 79 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Bishops, effort for 26, 31 
 
 Bishops, fear of 29, 30 
 
 Bishops, first house of 32 
 
 Bishop's Fund 96, 97 
 
 Bishops, non-juring 23 
 
 Bishops, Scottish 87 
 
 Bishop's signatures 93 
 
 Bishops of Connecticut. . .105 to 115 
 
 Bishop's support 86, 89, 96, 97 
 
 Blasphemy 116, 129 
 
 Bloomfield 58 
 
 Boarders 122 
 
 Boarders, must join family wor- 
 ship -121 
 
 Boston, Mass 17, 20, 24 
 
 Boston Synod 119 
 
 Bridgeport 100 
 
 Brooklyn, Conn 59, ^2, 100, 126 
 
 Burlington, N. J 23 
 
 California 15 
 
 Canons adopted 93 
 
 Canons, Ancient 96 
 
 Cape Cod 16 
 
 Capital laws 116 
 
 Catechist 53, 61 
 
 Catechist at Stratford 62 
 
 Catechist, interfered with 61 
 
 Census, Episcopal & Non-Epis- 
 copal 29, 80, 81, 82 
 
 Census of Connecticut, 1774, 29, 80, 
 
 81, 82 
 Certificate law, "]}„ 85, 88, 127, 128, 
 
 129 
 
 Certificates of withdrawal 94 
 
 Charleston, S. C 20, 21 
 
 Charter of the S. P. G 21 
 
 Christ Church, Boston ...24,33,47 
 
 Christ Church, Hartford 94 
 
 Christ Church, Middletown. 93, 97, 
 
 108, 113 
 
 Christ Church, Philadelphia, 21, 23, 
 
 32 
 
 Christ Church, Rye, N. Y 114 
 
 Christ Church, Savannah, Ga., 25 
 
 Christ Church, Stratford, 45, 47, 48, 
 
 .49, 64 
 
 Christian Knowledge Society, 98, 125 
 
 Christmas Sermon 88 
 
 Church built at Brooklyn, Conn., 59 
 Church building, first in Amer- 
 ica 17 
 
IV 
 
 INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Church building, first in Penn., ig 
 Church building, first in process 
 
 of construction in Conn 48 
 
 Church building, oldest in Conn., 102 
 Church building, oldest in 
 
 Northern States 23 
 
 Churches and towns in Conn., 40, 75, 
 76, 102, 103, 104 
 Churches, established by law, "jz, 126 
 Churches, first three in Conn. . . 49 
 Churches, in 1760, 75; in 1777, 76; 
 
 in 1799, 103, 104 
 Churches, majority of adopt 
 
 constitution 90 
 
 Churches, new ones only bj'^ 
 
 consent of General Court, 38, 117 
 Churches, only one relieved by 
 
 law of 1727 53 
 
 Churches, regulated 117,118 
 
 Church, first organized in Conn., 45 
 Church, first step for collective 
 
 body 31 
 
 Church of England, first named 
 
 in statutes 122 
 
 Church of England, first record 
 
 in Conn 38 
 
 Church of England, granted 
 
 right to tax themselves. . . .32, 123 
 Church of England, legally 
 
 Presbyterian 39 
 
 Church of England, members 
 
 of 38, 39, 118 
 
 Church of England minister, 
 
 legalized 52, 122, 123 
 
 Church of England, recognized 
 
 in law 122, 123, 127 
 
 Churchmen, find favor 72,126 
 
 Churchmen, hardships of, 17, 18, 19, 
 
 26, 31, 42, 49, 50, 59, 68, 69, 71 
 
 Churchmen, increase in number, 75 
 
 Churchmen, in majority 76 
 
 Church papers 94 
 
 Churchmen, pay double rates . . 74 
 Churchmen, unjustly accused, 73,74 
 Church services by minister, 
 
 allowed by law 68,122,123 
 
 Church statistics 33 
 
 Church, supported by law 30 
 
 Claremont, N. H '}>Z 
 
 Clergy, first meet the Bishop in 
 
 America 31 
 
 Clergy, list in 1777, 76; in 
 
 1799, 103, 104 
 Clergy, ordained by Bps. Sea- 
 bury and Jarvis 91, 92 
 
 Clergyman, first Episcopal in 
 
 Mass 17 
 
 Clergyman, first in South Caro- 
 lina 20 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Clergymen, number of ..30,75,102 
 Clergymen, only four in North 
 
 America 20 
 
 Clergymen, permitted in Pa. . . 20 
 
 Collectors, powers of 123 
 
 Communion Ofiice 32, 87, 88 
 
 Compulsory minister's support, 
 
 116, 117 
 
 Concordate 87 
 
 Confirmation, the first 91 
 
 Congregational accessions, 23, ■^2)^ 45, 
 
 ^ 55. 56, 75 
 Congregational Association ... 27 
 Congregational Church, Berlin, 94 
 Congregational Churches ap- 
 proved 39, 1 19 
 
 Congregational Churches regu- 
 lated 38,43,118 
 
 Congregational Church, New 
 
 London 41 
 
 Congregational, first mention in 
 
 the laws 39, 1 19 
 
 Congregational way alone prac- 
 ticed -i)! 
 
 Congregationalism in Mass. ... 33 
 CongregationaHst, first to come 
 
 over 45 
 
 Congregationalists at Hartford 
 
 divided 38 
 
 Congregationahsts in Virginia, 19 
 Connecticut, 22, 26, 29, 31. 33, 
 34 to 129 
 Connecticut Bible Society .... 98 
 Connecticut, Non-Episcopal cen- 
 sus of 79 to 82 
 
 Consecration, at New London, 88 
 Consecration, Bishop-elect failed 
 
 of 31 
 
 Consecration, first of a church, 
 
 32,91 
 
 Consecration, of Bishops 32 
 
 Consecration of Bp. Brownell, 100 
 Consecration of Bp. Hobart .. 11 1 
 Consecration of Bp. Jar\^is, 92, 109 
 Consecration of Bp. Seabury, 31,86. 
 
 107 
 Consecration of Bp. Williams, 113 
 Consecration, last by Bp. Sea- 
 bury 91 
 
 Constitution of Church adopted, 88. 
 
 89,90 
 
 Convention, Anti-Episcopal. 2^, 28, 
 
 29, 78, 79 
 
 Convention, first Annual 89 
 
 Convention, first General ... .28, 32 
 
 Convention of clergy 26 
 
 Convention of Conn, clergy ..31,86 
 
 Convention, marching to 93 
 
 Convocation 87 
 
INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 
 
 Cures, number of, 30, 75, 95, 102, 
 103, 104 
 Denomination, first named in 
 
 Conn 38, 119 
 
 Derby 100 
 
 Diocese of Connecticut estab- 
 lished 89 
 
 Dioceses, union of 32 
 
 Dissenters from Standing- 
 Order 119, 123, 127,129 
 
 Dissenters in England 28, 78 
 
 Dissenting ministers become 
 
 Churchmen 45, 47, 55- 56 
 
 Dissenters settled Connecticut, 2)7 
 
 Dutch Church 19 
 
 Ecclesiastical laws 116 to 129 
 
 Election Sermon 99 
 
 Elizabeth, N. J 27 
 
 Enfield 126 
 
 Episcopal Academy 90, 97, loi 
 
 Episcopal acts by Bp. Griswold, 98 
 Episcopal attire, first worn .... 88 
 Episcopal Church established by 
 
 law ^2, 126 
 
 Episcopal College loi 
 
 Episcopal dissenters 127 
 
 Episcopal, first use of the word 
 
 in Connecticut laws 85,127 
 
 Episcopal oppression 28 
 
 Episcopahans, lenity with regard 
 
 to ." 28 
 
 Episcopalians, proportion of, 29, 82 
 
 Episcopalians, taxing 123 
 
 Episcopate 78 
 
 Episcopate, Discourse on pub- 
 lished 24 
 
 Episcopate discussed 27 
 
 Exeter parish 89 
 
 Family worship 120, 121 
 
 Fairfield, 44, 46, 48, 50, 51, 54, 55- 61. 
 65, 68, 72 
 
 Fast Day 91 
 
 Favors to Standing Order, 66,67,71 
 
 Franklin, Conn 100 
 
 Fundamental Orders 116 
 
 General Association, Journal of, 28 
 General Association of Conn., 
 
 27, 128 
 
 General Consociation 124 
 
 General Convention loi 
 
 Georgia 25 
 
 Good Friday, first appointed as 
 
 Fast Day 91 
 
 Gospel service, appropriation 
 
 for 64, 124 
 
 Granby 137 
 
 Greenwich 66, 68, 71 
 
 Groton 50, 68 
 
 Guilford 58,78,124 
 
 Half-way Covenant, 39,40,85,118, 
 
 119, 121 
 
 Hampton, Va 17 
 
 Hartford 40, ii8 
 
 Hartford, Second Church .... 119 
 
 Harwinton 91 
 
 Hebron 57.68 
 
 Henrico, Va 20 
 
 Heretics 38, 117 
 
 Historical information, where 
 
 found 102 
 
 Holy orders, desired 24 
 
 Horse Neck 66 
 
 Idolatry 116 
 
 Indians 16, 17, 25, 58, 6r, 1 19 
 
 Inhabitant, first white in Rhode 
 
 Island 18 
 
 Jamaica, L. 1 22, 106 
 
 Jamestown, Va 16, 17 
 
 Jerseys 22 
 
 Journal, first parish reports in, 95 
 
 Journals, first printed 90 
 
 Kennebec, Me 17 
 
 Kent Island, Md \^ 
 
 King's Chapel 20, 21, ZZ, 93 
 
 King's College 26 
 
 King's instructions to Govern- 
 ors 21 
 
 Land fund 124 
 
 Lay reader 53 
 
 Laws of Colony, first printed . . 120 
 
 Lebanon 89 
 
 Ledyard 65 
 
 Legislature, listen to Bp. Brown- 
 ell 99 
 
 Library. Somaster's 66 
 
 Litchfield 58,88 
 
 Long Hill 46 
 
 Maine 15, 18, 19 
 
 Marriage, first recorded in 
 
 America 17 
 
 Martha's Vineyard 16 
 
 Maryland 18, 22, 30 
 
 Massachusetts 17, 19. 21, 29, Zl 
 
 Meeting houses 66, 122, 123, 125 
 
 Meetings in private houses, for- 
 bidden 122 
 
 Memorial of Churchmen 67 
 
 Meriden 114 
 
 Methodism 32 
 
 Middletown 86, 90, 91, 93, 97, 108 
 
 Milford 11 
 
 Minister, Congregational, first 
 
 to come over 45 
 
 Minister, Episcopal, only one in 
 
 Conn 49 
 
 Minister, first Episcopal made 
 D.D. by Yale 100 
 
VI 
 
 INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Minister, first Episcopal to 
 
 preach in Conn 41 
 
 Minister, first in Boston 17 
 
 Minister, first in Maryland .... 18 
 Alinister, first in Rhode Island, 18 
 Ministers and the marriage ser- 
 vice 126 
 
 Ministers, colored loi 
 
 Ministers, dissenting, become 
 
 Churchmen 45, 47, 56 
 
 Ministers, educated at Yale or 
 
 Harvard 124 
 
 Ministers, exempt from taxes, 121 
 Ministers in 1760, 75; in 1777, 76; 
 in 1799, 103, 104 
 
 Ministers, irregular 122 
 
 Ministers, long service 100 
 
 Ministers, marriage by legalized, 120 
 Ministers, none but settled and 
 
 approved to be attended ..38,118 
 Ministers, number of Congrega- 
 tional, 1766 75 
 
 Ministers, only one for 14 places, 53 
 
 Minister's support, 37, 38, 41, 116, 
 
 117, 120, 121, 124 
 
 Minister, violating canons 96 
 
 Missionaries, contributions for, 128 
 Missionaries for New London, 
 
 Newtown and Redding 55 
 
 Missionaries in 1756, 75; in 1777, i(i 
 Missionaries, must be asked for, 30 
 Missionaries of the S. P. G. ar- 
 rive 22 
 
 Missionaries of S. P. G., duties 
 
 of 56 
 
 Missionaries of S. P. G., first 9 
 
 in Conn, had been dissenters, 56 
 Missionaries, sent only where 
 
 wanted 57 
 
 Missionaries, want of ....58,59,60 
 
 Missionary appointed 24, 46 
 
 Missionary at Rye, N. Y 42 
 
 Missionary, first appointed to 
 
 Conn 46 
 
 Missionary for Fairfield 62 
 
 Missionary for North Groton, 56 
 Missionary, itinerant of the 
 
 Colony 56 
 
 Missionary Society 97 
 
 Missionary S. P. G., first in 
 
 Conn 41 
 
 Missionary to Africa 26, loi 
 
 Missionary work, first contribu- 
 tion 16 
 
 Moravians 124 
 
 New Britain 78 
 
 New Brunswick, N. J 106 
 
 New England 25 
 
 New England Colonies 22 
 
 New Fairfield 58,68,69 
 
 New Foundland IS, 16 
 
 New Hampshire 17, 18, 29 
 
 New Haven, Conn., 23, 55, 83, 99, 109 
 
 New Haven laws 120 
 
 New Jersey 23, 26, 29 
 
 New London, 41, 55, 65, 69, 84, 88, 
 
 106 
 
 New Milford 45,58,126 
 
 Newport, R. 1 23 
 
 Newtown, 47, 48, 72, 76, 83, 84, 93, 
 100, 125 
 
 New York 19, 21, 22, 23, 26, 29 
 
 North Carolina 16 
 
 North Groton 55, 56, 65, 66 
 
 North Guilford 70 
 
 North Haven 47, 48 
 
 Norwalk, Conn. . . -Z^, 46, 48, 68, 91 
 
 Norwich 58, 100 
 
 Nova Scotia 85 
 
 Ordination, first in America, 32, 86, 
 
 . . . 91 
 
 Ordination, going to England 
 
 for ..24, 42, 47, 53, 55, 56 
 
 Ordination, lives lost for 26 
 
 Ordination, Presbyterian .... 23 
 Ordinations, by English Bishops, 92 
 
 Ordinations, list of 91, 92 
 
 Organs for Churches 93, 94 
 
 Parishes, adopt constitution ... 89 
 Parishes, number of, 75, 76, 102, 
 
 103, 104 
 Parish, first formed in the Dio- 
 cese 8g 
 
 Parish, first organized in New 
 
 England 18 
 
 Parish reports, first 95 
 
 Pennsylvania 19, 22, 29 
 
 Penobscot 16 
 
 Periodicals, Church 94 
 
 Philadelphia, Pa 21, 23, 32 
 
 Pomf ret 59, 126 
 
 Popery 126 
 
 Popham Colony 17 
 
 Portsmouth, N. H 18 
 
 Prayer Book, Bp. Brownell's . . 100 
 Prayer Book, Bp. Seabury's . . 90 
 Prayer Book, changes in ....32,88 
 
 Prayer Book, discussed 87 
 
 Prayer Book, first in New Eng- 
 land 16 
 
 Prayer Book, first used in U. S., 15 
 
 Prayer Book, Proposed 32 
 
 ■Prayer Book, desired 44-49 
 
 Prayer Book, revised 88 
 
 Prayer Book, ridiculed 21 
 
 Prayer Book service by lavmen, 
 
 68, 69 
 Praj-er Book, service denounced, 17 
 
INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 
 
 Vll 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Prayer Book, service required 
 
 by law 22 
 
 Prayer Book, study of 23 
 
 Prayer Book, use of prohibited, 19 
 Preachers, irregular ....69,124,125 
 
 Preaching candidates 95 
 
 Presbyterian, Church of Eng- 
 land 39 
 
 Presbyterian Synod 27, 78 
 
 President of U. S., address to, 92 
 
 Protestants 125 
 
 Protestant Episcopal, name first 
 
 used 31 
 
 Providence 18, 24 
 
 Public service attending, 68, 117, 119, 
 122, 125, 127, 128 
 
 Public worship, fund for 128 
 
 Puritan ministers in Virginia . . 18 
 
 Quakerism 22 
 
 Quakers, 2.Z, 38, 40, 50, 55, 71, 117, 
 123, 127 
 Queen's Chapel, Portsmouth, 
 
 N. H 25 
 
 Ranters 38, 117 
 
 Redding 45, 66, 71, 76, 84 
 
 Religious equality 33, 129 
 
 Religious freedom, 119, 121, 125, 129 
 Religious instruction and select- 
 men 116 
 
 ReHgious sects 40, 75 
 
 Religious societies 129 
 
 Revolutionary War 31, 83, 84 
 
 Rhode Island r8, 21, 23, 29 
 
 Ripton 48 
 
 Rival service forbidden iiS 
 
 Rogerenes 40, 41 
 
 Roman Catholics 23 
 
 Rye, N. Y 4; 
 
 Saco, Me 18 
 
 Savages 16 
 
 Savannah, Ga 25 
 
 Saybrook 20 
 
 Saybrook Convention 121 
 
 Saybrook Platform 39, 86, I2t 
 
 Schenectady, N. Y 113 
 
 Schools, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 128 
 Schools, Colony, support of . . . 64 
 Schools, Episcopal, 62, 63, 64, 65, 
 
 66, 67 
 School fund diverted . . . .64,67, 128 
 School master at Fairfield ..62, 65 
 School master at Ledyard .... 65 
 School master at North Groton, (^-^ 
 School master at Stratford ..63,64 
 School master for Indians .... 65 
 
 School masters, duties of 60 
 
 School, money raised to support, 63 
 
 Schools, law to suppress 65 
 
 Schools, want of 60 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Scotland 125 
 
 Second Church, Hartford, es- 
 tablished 40 
 
 Sectaries, prohibited 44, 117 
 
 Sects, in Conn 40, 50,75 
 
 Sects, in New England 75 
 
 Selectmen and Bibles 122 
 
 Selectmen and family worship, 120 
 Selectmen and religious instruc- 
 tion 116 
 
 Separatists 50, 124, 127 
 
 Service, asked for 42 
 
 Service, attempt to suppress, 42, 43, 
 
 68, 69 
 Service, Episcopal, no law 
 
 against 43 
 
 Service, enjoined by first charter 
 
 for an English Colony 15 
 
 Service, enjoined by the King, 21 
 Service, first desire for in Conn., 41 
 
 Service, first in Conn 42 
 
 Service, first in New England, 17 
 Service, first of permanent 
 
 Church 16 
 
 Service, first of reformed 
 
 Church 15 
 
 Service in New York 19 
 
 Service of unreformed Church, 15 
 
 Service on early ships 15 
 
 Services, by lay reader, prose- 
 cutions for attending 68 
 
 Seven-day men 40 
 
 Simsbury 58, 71, 83 
 
 Societies and towns Zl 
 
 Society for the Propagation of 
 
 the "Gospel 21, 30, 56, 60, 85 
 
 Society meetings 123 
 
 Society treasurer 126 
 
 Somers 126 
 
 South Carolina 20, 21, 22 
 
 Southern Colonies 29 
 
 St. Andrew's, Meriden 114 
 
 St. George's, Schenectady .... 113 
 
 St. James, Derby 109 
 
 St. James, New London 106 
 
 St. John's Harbor 16 
 
 St. John's, New Milford 12, 126 
 
 St. John's, Waterbury 113 
 
 St. Mark's, Harwinton 91 
 
 St. Mary's, Burlington, N. J. . . 22 
 St. Michael's, Charleston, S. C, 20 
 St. Peter's, Westchester, N. Y. 106 
 
 Stamford 68, 71, 72, 100 
 
 Stamp act 26 
 
 Standing Committee 89 
 
 Standing Order favored, 66,67,71 
 State Officer, first Episcopal ... 99 
 Straight Congregationalists, 55, 86, 
 
 127 
 
INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Stratford, 24, 41, 42, z}4. 45. 46, 47, 48, 
 
 49, 63. 64, 65, 68, 70, 126 
 
 Studying for the Ministry .... 48 
 
 Sunday laws, 119, 122, 125, 127, 128 
 
 Sunday Schools 25, 100 
 
 Sunday School, the first 25 
 
 Synod of N. Y. and Phil 27, 78 
 
 Taxes for Standing Order, 50, 51, 
 
 52, 53, 54. 59. 60, 69, 70, 71, 72, 
 
 TZ, 116, 117, 122, 123, 127 
 
 Thanksgiving in Lent 91 
 
 Theological Seminary 100 
 
 Toleration act, 39, 43, 44, 54, 119, 
 
 121, 124 
 
 Towns, 26 in Conn 40 
 
 Towns, to call the minister . . . 121 
 Towns without ministers taxed, 120 
 
 Trinity, Boston 33 
 
 Trinity College loi 
 
 Trinity, Fairfield 72, 126 
 
 Trinity, New Haven, 92, 93, 100, 109 
 
 Trinity, Newport 21, 23 
 
 Unitarians 33 
 
 Vagrant preachers 74, 125 
 
 Vermont 33 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Virginia 16, 17, 18, 19, 22, 30 
 
 Voting in Society meetings . . . 123 
 
 Wallingf ord 57, 58, 70 
 
 Washington College loi 
 
 Waterbury 7i. 1 13 
 
 Western visitation by Bp. 
 
 Brownell loi 
 
 West Haven, Conn., 23, 47, 56, 66, 
 
 10.2 
 
 Wethersfield 118 
 
 Weymouth, Mass 17 
 
 Windsor 118, 126 
 
 Williamsburg, Va 23 
 
 William and Mary College, 21,26 
 
 Willington 126 
 
 Woodbury 31, 66, 84 
 
 Word of God, contempt of pun- 
 ished 117 
 
 Worship, compulsory attend- 
 ance 68, 117, 122, 125, 128 
 
 Worship, freedom to granted, 39, 43, 
 
 119, 121 
 Worship, no form of forbidden, 37 
 
 Yale College 23, 24, 26, 47, 100 
 
 Yale College Chapel 26 
 
INDEX OF PERSONS 
 
 Adams, John 92 
 
 Alison, Francis 27 
 
 Allen, Timothy 65 
 
 Alsop, Richard 93 
 
 Andross, Edmund 21 
 
 Andrews, Samuel 76, 84 
 
 Arnold, Jonathan ..56,57,68,71,77 
 
 Atkinson 115 
 
 Baldwin, Ashbel 91, 93, 103 
 
 Baltimore, Lord 18 
 
 Bass, Edward 92, 109 
 
 Beach, John 55, 58, 60, 68, 71, 72. 
 74, 75, 76, 77, 83, 84, 100 
 
 Beach, Joseph 64 
 
 Beardsley, Ebenezer Edwards S2i, 
 43, 44, 76, 84, 90, 93, 97, 98, 112 
 
 Beasley, Frederick 109 
 
 Bennett, Cornelius 63, 65 
 
 Berkeley 25 
 
 Blackstone, William 17, iS 
 
 Blair, James 20, 21 
 
 Blake 60 
 
 Blakesley, Solomon 103 
 
 Bostwick, Gideon 76, 84 
 
 Bowden, John 92, 103, 109, no 
 
 Boj'le, Robert 19 
 
 Bray, Thomas 21, 22 
 
 Brett, Daniel 22 
 
 Brewster, Chauncey Bunce 105, 114, 
 
 115 
 
 Brewster, Joseph 1 14 
 
 Brewster, Sarah Bunce 114 
 
 Brewster, William 114 
 
 Brownson, Tilotson 103 
 
 Brown, Arthur 2=, 
 
 Brown, Daniel 23, 24, 47 
 
 Browne, George Israel 59 
 
 Brown, John 17 
 
 Brown, Joseph 63, 64, 65 
 
 Brown, Samuel 17 
 
 Brownell, Mercy Church in 
 
 Browneil, Sylvester in 
 
 Brownell, Thomas Church 91, 99, 
 100, loi, 102, 105, III, 112, 113 
 
 Brush, Naomi 108 
 
 Bunce, Sarah 114 
 
 Burgess, George 113 
 
 Burhans, Daniel 93, 104 
 
 Burnham, Gordon W 112 
 
 Butler Ill 
 
 Butler, David 103 
 
 Cabot, John 15 
 
 Callahan, John 104 
 
 Calvert, Cecilius 18 
 
 Camp, Ichabod 109 
 
 Campanius, John 19 
 
 Caner, Henry 48, 53, 54, 55, 60, 62, 
 66, 68, 71, 72 
 
 Caner, Richard 65 
 
 Chandler, Mary Goodwin no 
 
 Chandler, Thomas Bradbury 106, 
 108, no 
 
 Chapin, A. B 92 
 
 Chase, Philander 109, 113 
 
 Church, Mercy in 
 
 Claggett, Thomas John ^3, 91, 109 
 
 Clark 19 
 
 Clark, Richard S 76, 84 
 
 Clayborn, William 17 
 
 Clayton, Thomas 21 
 
 Coleman, Leighton 33 
 
 Compton 20, 61 
 
 Cornbury 42 
 
 Coxe, Arthur Cleveland 118 
 
 Croswell, Harry 99, 100 
 
 Curtice, Joseph 42, 43 
 
 Cutler, Timothy 23, 24, 25, 47 
 
 Dare, Virginia 16 
 
 DeLancy, William Heathcote . . 113 
 
 Deshon 114 
 
 Dibblee, Ebenezer 72, 76, 100 
 
 Dickinson, Charlott in 
 
 Dickinson, Tertullus in 
 
 Digby 107 
 
 Dongan 21 
 
 Drake, Francis 15 
 
 Durand 19 
 
 Eastburn 113 
 
 Evans 44 
 
 Fanning, Edmund 107 
 
 Farmar, Ann 108 
 
 Farmar, Samuel 108 
 
 Fingley 66 
 
 Fitch, Joseph 39 
 
 Fletcher 15 
 
 Fogg, Daniel 60, 76, 100, 103 
 
 Fowler, Samuel 70 
 
 Franklin, Benjamin 26 
 
 Frobisher 15 
 
 Furgeson 91 
 
 Gibbs. William 58, 70, 76, 84 
 
 Gibson, Richard 18 
 
INDEX OF PERSONS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Gilbert, Humphrey 15 
 
 Gilbert, Jonathan 39 
 
 Gleason, E 28 
 
 Gold, Nathan 48, 61 
 
 Goodrich, Elizur 29, 2>1> 72,, 79. 82, 83 
 
 Goodwin, William 38 
 
 Gordon, Patrick 22 
 
 Gorges, Robert 17 
 
 Gorges, William 18 
 
 Gosnold 16 
 
 Grannis, Edward 39 
 
 Graves, Matthew 65, 70, 76, 84 
 
 Green 115 
 
 Green, Samuel 120 
 
 Green, T. . 87,90 
 
 Green, William 104 
 
 Gyles, John 20 
 
 Griswold, Alexander Viets 91, 98. 
 
 100, X03 
 
 Hariot, Thomas 16 
 
 Harrison 19 
 
 Hawkins 18 
 
 Heathcote, Caleb 42, 45, 46 
 
 Henshaw, John Prentice Kewly 113 
 
 Hoadley, George 90 
 
 Hobart, Enoch no 
 
 Hobart, Hannah Pratt no 
 
 Hobart, John Henry 79,96,98,99, 
 100, loi, 105, no. III 
 
 Honeyman, James 22, 
 
 Plooker, Thomas 86 
 
 Hooper, Joseph 102,110,115 
 
 Hopkins, John Henry 113 
 
 Hubbard, Bela 72, 76, 83, 100, 103, 
 
 108 
 
 Hudson, James 42 
 
 Humphrey, Michael 38 
 
 Huntington, Samuel 91 
 
 Hutchinson 65 
 
 Ingersoll, Jonathan 99, 100 
 
 IngHs 106 
 
 Innes, Alexander 19, 22 
 
 Ives, Reuben 100, 103 
 
 James, Richard 17 
 
 Jarvis, Abraham 76,83,85,86,91,92, 
 
 93, 96, 98, 99, 103, 105, 108, 109, 
 
 no 
 
 Jarvis, Lucy Gushing 84 
 
 Jarvis, Naomi Brush 108 
 
 Jarvis, Samuel 108 
 
 Jarvis, Samuel Farmar no, 113 
 
 Johnson, Samuel 23, 24, 25, 26, 33, 
 
 47, 48, 49, 50, 53, 54, 55, 56, 58, 
 
 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 67, 68, 70, 71, 
 
 72, 75, 78, 84, 108 
 
 Jones 66 
 
 Jordan, Robert 18, 19, 20 
 
 Keith, George 22, 41, 42, 46 
 
 Keppel, Frederick 108 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Kilbourn, D. C 46 
 
 Kilgour, Robert 107 
 
 Kneeland, Ebenezer 66, 76, 84 
 
 Laborie, James 61 
 
 Laud 18 
 
 Leaming, Jeremiah 31, 83, 84, 85, 86, 
 
 103 
 
 Lee, Alfred 113 
 
 Leete, William 40 
 
 Leslie 24 
 
 Lewis, Lucy 108 
 
 Lewis, Nathaniel 108 
 
 Lockyer 21 
 
 Longmans 115 
 
 Love, W. DeLoss Jr 91 
 
 Luscombe 113 
 
 Lyttleton, Charles 108 
 
 Madison, James 32 
 
 Malbone, Godfrey 59 
 
 Mansfield, Richard 76, 100, 103 
 
 Manteo , 16 
 
 Marsh, Jonathan 88 
 
 Marsh, Truman 103 
 
 Marshall, John Rutgers 66, 76 
 
 Marverick, Samuel 17 
 
 Mary, Queen 54, 121 
 
 Mather 79,83 
 
 Mather, Cotton 17 
 
 Meeham, Joseph 126 
 
 Miles, Smith 103 
 
 Morrell, William 17 
 
 Morris, Theophilos 57, 58, 68 
 
 Moseley, Richard 59 
 
 Moses, John 38 
 
 Muirson, George . . .42, 43, 44, 45, 46 
 
 Mumford, Abigail 106 
 
 Newton, Christopher 76 
 
 Nichols, James 76 
 
 Nicholson, Francis 21 
 
 Nott, Eliphalet ill 
 
 Nott, Samuel 100 
 
 Oglethorpe, James 25 
 
 Olmstead, Nicholas 39 
 
 Orcutt, Samuel 45, 46, 64 
 
 Osbaldiston, Richard 106, 108 
 
 Oson, Jacob loi 
 
 Palmer, Solomon 77 
 
 Penn, William 19, 20 
 
 Perry, William Stevens 16,31,33, 
 
 66,84 
 
 Peters, Samuel 33, 76 
 
 Petrie, Arthur 107 
 
 Philips, Francis 46, 73 
 
 Pigott, George 47, 48, 61 
 
 Pitkin, William 38, 39 
 
 Pratt, Hannah no 
 
 Prindle, Chauncey 103 
 
 Pring 16 
 
 Provoost, Samuel 32, 91, 92 
 
INDEX OF PERSONS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Punderson, Ebenezer 26, 56, 58, 68, 
 69, 71, ^2, 74 
 
 Raikes, Robert 25 
 
 Raleigh 16 
 
 Ratcliffe, Robert 20 
 
 Read, John 45 
 
 Reeve, Robert 38 
 
 Robinson, John "]"] 
 
 Rogers, Ammi 95, 96 
 
 Rogers, Evan 104 
 
 Ross 79 
 
 Sabine 84 
 
 Sahnon, Thomas 62 
 
 Salter 93 
 
 Salterne, William 16 
 
 Saltonstall, Gurdon 41 
 
 Sayre, John 76 
 
 Scovill, James 76, 84 
 
 Seabury, Abigail Mumford . . . 106 
 
 Seabury, Charles 103 
 
 Seabury, Samuel 26, 31, 32, 55, 57, 58, 
 68, 71, T2, 76, 84, 85, 86, 87, h8, 90, 91, 
 92, 93, 99, 105, 106, 107, 109, no 
 
 Sewall, Richard z\ 
 
 Seymour, Richard 17 
 
 Shelton, Philo 91, 100, 103 
 
 Sherlock, Thomas • 106 
 
 Skinner, John 107 
 
 Smalley, John 78 
 
 Smith 118 
 
 Smith, Robert 109 
 
 Smith, William 103, 109 
 
 Somasters 65, 66 
 
 Sprague in 
 
 Sproat 27 
 
 Stafford, Richard 15 
 
 Steadman, John 38, 39 
 
 Stebbins, Cyrus in 
 
 Steere, Richard 41 
 
 Stiles, (Styles) 75 
 
 Stiles, Henry R 39, n 8 
 
 Styles, Isaac 46 
 
 Swords, T. & J 33, 98, 
 
 Talbot, John 22,23,41,45,46,49,73 
 
 Talcott, Joseph 49 
 
 Talcott, Ruth 45 
 
 Taylor, Nathaniel 79 
 
 Thomas, John 106 
 
 Thomas, Samuel 22 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Thompson, Ebenezer 61 
 
 Thompson, Thomas 26 
 
 Todd, Ambrose 103 
 
 Trowbridge, Emily 112 
 
 TuUey, John 20 
 
 Tyler, John 59, 76, 83, 100, 103 
 
 Van Dyke 91 
 
 Vesey 42 
 
 Viets, Roger 58, 75, 76, 84 
 
 Walker 39 
 
 Walter, William 108 
 
 Ward, Moses 51 
 
 Wasliington, George 91,107 
 
 Wells, Noah 78, 79, 108 
 
 Welton, Robert 23 
 
 Wesley, Charles 25 
 
 Wesley, John 25 
 
 Westover, Jonas 38 
 
 Wetmore, James ...24,47,68,70,71 
 
 Weymouth, Richard 16 
 
 Wheaton, Nathaniel Sheldon . . 99 
 
 White 16 
 
 White, Calvin 104 
 
 White, Henry 90 
 
 White, William 31, 2)^, 92, 100, no, 
 
 III 
 
 Whitefield, George 25,74,75 
 
 Whiting, John 39, 119 
 
 Whitman 79 
 
 Whittaker, Thomas 33 
 
 Whittlesey, Eliphalet 78 
 
 Wilberforce 33 
 
 Wilkins, Isaac 106 
 
 William, King 54, 121 
 
 Williams, Emily Trowbridge .. 112 
 
 Williams, Ephraim 112 
 
 Williams, John 105, 1 12, 1 14 
 
 Williamson, Atkin 20 
 
 Willoughby, Hugh 15 
 
 Wilson 26 
 
 Winslow 70 
 
 Winthrop, Fitzjohn 41 
 
 Winthrop, John 18 
 
 Wolcott, Oliver 99 
 
 Wolfall, Master 15 
 
 Woolley, Charles 19 
 
 Wright 90 
 
 Yale, Elihu 24 
 
 Zoubelbudler, Bartholomew ... 25 
 
I. THE CHURCH IN AMERICA 
 
THE CHURCH IN AMERICA 
 
 HISTORY 
 
 Every English ship that came early to this continent or to 
 its borders had on board a Chaplain of the Church of England 
 whose duty it was to perform Divine Service daily, according 
 to the rules of that Church. Without doubt John Cabot in 
 1497 carried with him to America in his ship " The Matthew " 
 some minister of the Church of England. In 1498 a priest 
 going to New Foundland was granted a royal bounty. Early in 
 the sixteenth century, a canon of St. Paul's, London, was at St. 
 John's, New Foundlaqd, for a while. But these were of the 
 unreformed Church. 
 
 In 1553 the explorers under Sir Hugh Willoughby had with 
 them Master Richard Stafford, Minister of their three ships. 
 This fleet was the first in America to have prayers and preach- 
 ing under the reformed Church of England. The Chaplain of 
 Frobisher's expedition performed Divine Service along the 
 shores of Maine and the Provinces in 1577. On May 31, 1578, 
 on the shores of Hudson's Bay, " Master Wolfall celebrated a 
 Communion upon land" for the Captain and others. This 
 wortliy man was the first missionary priest of the Reformed 
 Church of England who ministered on American shores and the 
 ice fields of the North. 
 
 On June 21, 1579, the Rev. Mr. Fletcher, Chaplain to Sir 
 Francis Drake, landed where California now is and performed 
 religious services for six weeks. He was the first clergyman 
 who used the Book of Common Prayer in the territory now 
 embraced in the United States. 
 
 It was expressly stated in the first charter for an English 
 Colony in America, which was granted to Sir Humphrey Gilbert 
 in 1583, that the laws of the new settlement should not be 
 "against the true Christian faith or religion now professed in 
 
l6 THE CHURCH 
 
 the Church of Engiand" and the first law enjoined on taking 
 possession of St. John's Harbor, New Foundland, was that the 
 Colony's religion should be "in public exercise according to the 
 Church of England." 
 
 In July, 1584, Raleigh's first expedition landed at Roanoke 
 Island, North Carolina, where Divine Service was then per- 
 formed. 
 
 Sir Thomas Hariot labored in Virginia, (now North Caro- 
 lina,) and records his use of the Prayer Book among "the poor 
 infidels" in 1585. He was one of the "first lay readers in the 
 American Church." The first baptisms in America occurred in 
 Raleigh's second colony, under Governor White. Manteo, an 
 Indian Chief, was baptized Aug. 13, 1587, at Roanoke Island, 
 N. C, and seven days later Virginia Dare was baptized, the first 
 white child born in America of English parents. In 1589, 
 Raleigh assigned his patent to a company of merchants and 
 gave them one hundred pounds sterling "in especial regard and 
 zeal of planting the Christian religion in those barbarous 
 countries." This donation was the first contribution directly 
 for missionary work in America. < 
 
 In 1602 and 3, Gosnold and Pring commanded expeditions 
 which landed on the New England coast. (Cape Cod and 
 Martha's Vineyard.) They had as lay reader one William 
 Salterne, who was ordained shortly after his return to England. 
 He was the first to use the Book of Common Prayer in what 
 is now called New England. Bishop Perry says there is every 
 reason to believe that "the prayers and praises of the Leyden 
 settlers .... were anticipated by the forms of the Church 
 of England in the very locality where the Pilgrim fathers lived 
 and died." 
 
 In 1605, an expedition sailed from Bristol, Eng. under Cap- 
 tain Richard Weymouth, with the declared object of "promul- 
 gating of God's Holy Church by planting Christianity." They 
 sailed up the Penobscot and erected a cross near Belfast, Me. 
 The savages who attended their worship were much impressed. 
 Some of these savages were taken to England and educated. 
 
 The first service of a permanent Church in America was at 
 Jamestown, where the Virginia Colony landed, May 13, 1607, 
 with the Rev. Robert Hunt, M.A., as their Chaplain. A rustic 
 
IN AMERICA. 17 
 
 altar was erected and the Holy Communion celebrated for the 
 first time June 21, 1607. The Virginia charter provided "that 
 the true word and service of God be preached, planted, and 
 used, according to the rites and doctrine of the Church of 
 England." Virginia never intermitted. 
 
 The first clergyman to preach the Gospel in the English 
 tongue in New England was the Rev. Richard Seymour of the 
 Popham Colony, who preached at the mouth of the Kennebec 
 River, Maine, Aug. 9, 1607. The Indians who went to Eng- 
 land in 1605 returned with the Popham Colony and are thought 
 to have become missionaries among their fellow red men. 
 These Episcopal Indians afterwards rendered valuable service 
 to the Plymouth Pilgrims. The first church building in 
 America was erected by this Popham Colony in the fall of 
 1607, a little in advance of the erection of the church at James- 
 town, but the church in Maine was abandoned in 1608, when 
 the Colony returned to England. 
 
 The first marriage recorded in America took place at James- 
 town, Va., in 1608. 
 
 About 1610, a Church was organized at Hampton, Va., after 
 which we have no religious history until the landing of the 
 Pilgrims at Plymouth in 1620. Shortly after their coming 
 the Rev. William Blackstone settled at Boston, Mass., and was 
 the first Church of England clergyman to settle within the 
 bounds of Massachusetts. Mather speaks of him as one of 
 the "Godly Episcopalians." 
 
 In 1623, the Rev. William Morrell came over with Robert 
 Gorges and a Colony was formed at Weymouth, Mass. He 
 was the authorized Ecclesiastical Commissioner, but he returned 
 to England in about a year. The first settlers in the New 
 Hampshire Colony, 1623, were Churchmen. 
 
 In 1629, two brothers, John and Samuel Brown, worshipped 
 with Prayer Books at their house in Salem, Mass., and were 
 joined by some of their neighbors. They were denounced as 
 ringleaders of a faction and sent back to England. Samuel 
 Marverick, a Churchman in Boston, was about this time sub- 
 jected to a number of persecutions. The same year, under the 
 authority of Virginia, William Clayborn established a trading 
 station on Kent Island, Maryland. The Rev. Richard James 
 
l8 THE CHURCH 
 
 of the English Church was with him and was the first Christian 
 minister in Maryland. 
 
 In 1630, the Rev. William Blackstone of Boston sold his 
 farm and removed to Rhode Island, settling a few miles north 
 of Providence on the river which still bears his name. He 
 was the first white inhabitant of that state as well as the first 
 minister. 
 
 The charter of Maryland was granted June 30, 1632, to 
 Cecilius Calvert, the second Lord Baltimore, whose company 
 landed at St. Mary's, March 27, 1634. A chapel was erected 
 here in 1635 for services of the English Church. 
 
 After the settlement of Rhode Island, 1635, the Rev. William 
 Blackstone frequently went to Providence to preach the Gospel. 
 
 In 1636, William Gorges came out with a patent for the terri- 
 tory of Maine, which patent established the Church of England 
 as the religion of the Colony. The first regularly settled minis- 
 ter was the Rev. Richard Gibson, 1637, who spent about seven 
 years at Saco, Me. The Rev. Robert Jordan about this time 
 served as an itinerant minister. In 1638 a church and par- 
 sonage had been built at Portsmouth, N. H., and the Rev. Mr. 
 Gibson of Saco, Me., called as Rector. The parish was 
 organized in 1640 and was probably the first organization of 
 the kind in New England. 
 
 In 1638, Archbishop Laud designed sending a Bishop to New 
 England, but his plans were thwarted by the outbreak of 
 troubles in Scotland. [Hawkins' Historical Notices of the 
 Missions of the Church of England, p. 376.] 
 
 In 1641, New Hampshire came under the authority of Massa- 
 chusetts and Episcopalians had to suffer. The same year a 
 report was made to Gov. Winthrop that the people of Saco, in 
 Maine, "were much addicted to Episcopacy." In 1642, Richard 
 Gibson of Portsmouth, N. H., was tried in Boston for baptizing 
 infants and solemnizing marriages at the Isle of Shoals accord- 
 ing to the ritual of the Church of England. He was banished 
 by the Puritans and never returned. The Church at Ports- 
 mouth has no history for ninety years after this. 
 
 About 1642 certain Puritan ministers were recommended by 
 the Governor of Massachusetts to the Council of Virginia, 
 where pious people had invited them to labor, but the next year 
 
IN AMERICA. 19 
 
 they were forced to leave that Episcopal stronghold and return 
 to Massachusetts. 
 
 In 1644-5, Massachusetts by law forbade under heavy penal- 
 ties the use of the Prayer Book in public or private, and all 
 copies of it were to be delivered up. 
 
 In 1646 a Swedish Episcopal church was built at Tinicum, 
 which was the first church in Pennsylvania, and its Rector, the 
 Rev. John Campanius, was at work nearly forty years before 
 William Penn's arrival. In this year also petitions were 
 presented at Boston for permission to use the Prayer Book, 
 which were answered by punishing the petitioners for sedition. 
 These petitions were repeated in 1664 with the same result. 
 
 In 1648, the Congregationalists formed a Church in Virginia 
 with 118 members, but its Elder, Mr. Durand, was soon 
 banished, and afterwards its pastor, Mr. Harrison, was obliged 
 to depart. 
 
 On October 16, 1660, the Rev. Robert Jordan, who lived 
 thirty-one years at Falmouth (now Portland), Me., preaching, 
 except when silenced by the Puritans, was before the General 
 Court of Massachusetts for baptizing children and warned not 
 to repeat the offence. He was finally imprisoned. 
 
 In 1661, Robert Boyle, Esq., was appointed the first governor 
 of a company incorporated by His Majesty " For the Propaga- 
 tion of the Gospel among the Heathen Nations of New Eng- 
 land." This grew out of a missionary society which was 
 formed in England in 1649. 
 
 There was no Episcopal Service in New York until the Eng- 
 lish came there to reside, when it was expressly stipulated that 
 liberty of conscience should be enjoyed by all. The first service 
 of record was by the Rev. Charles Wolley, 1678, but it is pro- 
 able that the English used the Dutch church in the Fort for 
 their Prayer Book service. The service in the Fort was all the 
 footing that the English Church had in New York for more 
 than thirty years. The Rev. Alexander Innes succeeded Mr. 
 Clark as the "orthodox " chaplain at the Fort. 
 
 In 1679, Robert Jordan, the itinerant preacher of Maine, 
 died. He was the sole priest of tlie Church in New England 
 who was faithful to his ordination vows. The words of Com- 
 mon Prayer were not heard again in Maine for eighty years. 
 
20 THE CHURCH 
 
 aside from that of John Gyles, a lay reader who read prayers at 
 the garrison from 1683 to 1688. 
 
 About the time of Jordan's death, 1679, several persons peti- 
 tioned the Bishop of London that a Church of England be 
 allowed in Boston, which was granted, and King's Chapel was 
 established among as bitter enemies as the Church has ever 
 encountered on this continent. About this time Bishop Comp- 
 ton, of London, made inquiry as to how the Foreign Plantation 
 was provided with clergymen and found that there were not 
 above four ministers of the Church of England in North 
 America. 
 
 The first clergyman of the Church to appear in South Caro- 
 lina was the Rev. Atkin Williamson, about 1680. 
 
 The Charter to William Penn of Pennsylvania, 1681, pro- 
 vided that if twenty persons should apply to the Bishop of Lon- 
 don for a clergyman, that he might reside in the Province with- 
 out any denial or molestation. 
 
 The first church in South Carolina was erected about 1682 
 on the site now occupied by St. Michael's Church, at Charleston. 
 
 The Church in America was without a head until 1685, when 
 the Rev. James Blair, D.D., came as missionary to Virginia 
 under the Bishop of London. He was for nine years Rector of 
 Henrico Parish and in 1689 was appointed Commissary and 
 performed such oversight of the clergy for the Bishop as he 
 could without actually being a Bishop. 
 
 On May 23, 1686, the Rev. Robert Ratcliffe read Common 
 Prayer and preached in his surplice at the Town House in 
 Boston, which was so great a novelty to the Bostonians that he 
 had a very large audience. On June 15, the members of the 
 Church of England assembled for organization. They held 
 their services in the town hall for some time, but finally 
 arranged to hold them in the South Meeting House after the 
 Puritans were through. 
 
 The first New England Almanac with the holidays of the 
 Episcopal Church noted in its calendar, was published by John 
 Tulley of Saybrook, Conn., for the year 1687 and afterwards 
 until 1702. It was also the first one that began the year with 
 January instead of March. It was printed in Massachusetts, 
 
IN AMERICA. 21 
 
 as there was no printing press then in Connecticut. [Albert C. 
 Bates in Connecticut Quarterly, Vol. IV, 409.] 
 
 In 1689, King's Chapel was erected on the site of the present 
 edifice and was opened for service June 30. 
 
 During- the revolution against the King, the Governor and 
 others were imprisoned and the Chaplain was obliged to flee. 
 The chapel was mutilated and subjected to the grossest indigni- 
 ties. The Prayer Book was held up to ridicule in a series of 
 pamphlets and those who continued its use were denominated 
 "Papist dogs and rogues, idolaters, and the like." 
 
 The King's instructions to Governors Andros of Massa- 
 chusetts and Dongan of New York were that they should "take 
 especial care that God Almighty be devoutely and duly served 
 throughout your Government ; the Book of Common Prayer 
 . , . read each Sunday and Holy day, and the Blessed 
 Sacraments administered according to the Rites of the Church 
 of England." 
 
 In 1691, the Rev. James Blair of Virginia was sent to Eng- 
 land for a charter for William and Mary College to be a semin- 
 ary for the education of fit men for the sacred ministry. The 
 first commencement was held in 1700. 
 
 Christ Church, Philadelphia, the first in that place, was 
 erected in .1695, and the first clergyman to ofiiciate in it was 
 the Rev. Richard Sewall of Maryland. Its first Rector was 
 the Rev. Thomas Clayton. 
 
 The earliest permanent Church in Rhode Island was Trinity 
 Church of Newport, under the preaching of the Rev. Mr. 
 Lockyer and the patronage of Sir Francis Nicholson, who has 
 been called the founder of the Church of Rhode Island. 
 
 An act was passed in South Carolina in 1698 "to settle a 
 maintenance on a Minister of the Church of England in 
 Charleston." Outside of Charleston there was but one clergy- 
 man of the Church in 1700. 
 
 The Rev. Dr. Bray returned to England in 1701 and had the 
 honor of obtaining the charter of the Society for the Propaga- 
 tion of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. This Society is referred 
 to in history as the S. P. G. 
 
 The charter recites that it is our duty "to promote the Glory 
 of God, by the instruction of our People in the Christian 
 
22 THE CHURCH 
 
 religion" and to accomplish that end, arranged that "a. sufficient 
 maintenance be provided for an Orthodox Clergy to live 
 amongst" the people in those parts. At this time South Caro- 
 lina had 7,000 souls besides negroes and Indians living without 
 any minister of the church. North Carolina had 5,000 without 
 any minister. Virginia had 40,000 divided into 40 parishes 
 with about half the number of clergymen. Maryland had 
 only about 25,000 and only about 13 clergymen. Pennsylvania 
 had 20,000 with only 700 who attended church and only 250 
 communicants. New York had 30,000 with 1,200 church 
 attefldants and 450 communicants. The two Jerseys had 15,000 
 with 600 church attendants and 200 communicants. Connecti- 
 cut had 30,800 with 150 church attendants and 35 communi- 
 cants. In the other New England Colonies there were 90,000 
 with 750 church attendants and 150 communicants. 
 
 About 1702, a church was built near Eden, N. C, and 
 Dr. Bray sent the Rev. Daniel Brett there as the first minister 
 of the Church in that Province. In the same year the Rev. 
 Samuel Thomas was sent to South Carolina as the first mis- 
 sionary there of the S. P. G. The Rev. George Keith, Rev. 
 Patrick Gordon, and Rev. John Talbot arrived in Boston, June 
 II, 1702. The two former were missionaries of the S. P. G., 
 and Talbot joined with them. Gordon went to Jamaica and 
 organized the first parish of Long Island. Keith and Talbot 
 made a tour of nearly all the colonies. Talbot became Rector of 
 St. Mary's Church, Burlington, N. ]., but continued to work 
 in various places. 
 
 Prior to 1700 there were but few Churchmen in New Jersey. 
 The Rev. George Keith arrived and held his first service of 
 the Church at Amboy, Oct. 4, 1702. Prior to his coming the 
 Rev. Alexander Innes had officiated in the Jerseys. Mr. Keith 
 first came to America in 1682 and was a Quaker preacher at 
 Monmouth, N. J. The line of reading and argument which he 
 pursued with reference to Quakerism led him into the Church 
 of England. In 1694, he went to England for holy orders, 
 which he received in 1700. 
 
 In 1702, the Church in Maryland was established by law and 
 the Book of Common Prayer was required to be read in all 
 the churches having an income from the Government. A 
 
IN AMERICA. 23 
 
 prior act had required the use of the Prayer Book in every place 
 of public worship in the Province. This was repealed for the 
 benefit of the Roman Catholics and Quakers. 
 
 In 1704, the Rev. James Honeyman was appointed Mission- 
 ary of the S. P. G. and sent to Newport, R. I. This was the 
 first place in New England that the Society provided a minister 
 for. 
 
 A petition for a Bishop in America was signed by fourteen 
 clergymen of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania at Bur- 
 lington, N. J., 1705. 
 
 The second church in Rhode Island was erected in the 
 Narragansett country in 1707, where there had been Churchmen 
 since about 1700. This church is still standing (1906), and is 
 believed to be the oldest Episcopal church in the northern part 
 of the United States. 
 
 In 171 3, the ministers, wardens and vestrymen of Trinity 
 Church, Newport, R. I., petitioned the Queen for the establish- 
 ment of Bishops in America. 
 
 In 171 5, the S. P. G. Society repeated its request for Bishops 
 with the proposition to establish four Sees, two in the colonies, 
 one of which was to be at Burlington, N. J., and the other at 
 Williamsburg, Va. About the same time bequests of £2,000 
 became operative towards the settlement of two Bishops, one of 
 which was for America. 
 
 It is claimed that John Talbot of New Jersey and Dr. Robert 
 Welton of London were consecrated Bishops by the non-juring 
 Bishops in England. Talbot returned to New Jersey and Dr. 
 Welton came over and was Rector of Christ Church, Philadel- 
 phia, 1724 to 1726. It is certain, however, that they never 
 exercised Episcopal jurisdiction. 
 
 A most remarkable event took place at New Haven, Conn., 
 in 1722. Dr. Samuel Johnson, formerly the tutor at Yale Col- 
 lege and then Congregational pastor in West Haven, met other 
 ministers of the Standing Order and joined them in the study 
 of questions suggested by the Prayer Book. The result of 
 their studies appeared the day after commencement, in 1722, 
 when seven ministers made a declaration that some of them 
 doubted the validity of Presbyterian ordination. Messrs. 
 Samuel Johnson, Daniel Brown, the tutor, and Timothy Cutler, 
 
24 THE CHURCH 
 
 the Rector of the College, determined to seek holy orders at 
 the hands of a Bishop. They were soon followed by Mr. James 
 Wetmore. These men were promptly removed from their posi- 
 tions and hotly abused by their former companions. They were 
 called " cudweds," " highflyers," and other names. On Oct. 
 2, 1722, the committee of Christ Church, Boston, wrote to Dr. 
 Cutler, congratulating him and his friends on account of their 
 recent declaration in favor of the Church, and invited Dr. 
 Cutler to settle in Boston. They also promised to pay for the 
 passage of Messrs. Cutler, Johnson and Brown to England for 
 holy orders and to provide for the support of Mr. Cutler while 
 there. They were ordained in 1723 and Dr. Cutler arrived in 
 Boston to take charge of Christ Church, Sept. 24, 1723. Dr. 
 Johnson settled at Stratford, Conn., and Mr. Brown died in 
 England. This Episcopal accession from Yale College brings 
 to mind that Elihu Yale doubted " whether it was well in him 
 being a Churchman, to promote an academy of dissenters, " but 
 on reflection concluded " that the business of good is to spread 
 religion and learning among mankind, without being too fondly 
 attached to particular tenets." 
 
 One of the foremost advocates for an Episcopate was John 
 Checkley of Boston. He was in England with Johnson and 
 Cutler in 1723. To counteract the baneful influences of infi- 
 delity which he encountered he published, first in 1719 and 
 second in England, 1723, Leslie's famous " Short and Easie 
 Methods with the Deists" together with his " Discourse con- 
 cerning Episcopacy." He urged that a Non-Episcopal minis- 
 try was " not only invalid, but sacrilege and rebellion against 
 Christ. " His book was denounced by the Puritans as a " false 
 and scandalous libel. " In the lower court he was adjudged 
 guilty without a hearing and on appeal he was fined ^50, impris- 
 oned and ordered to keep quiet. In 1727 he was in England 
 for ordination but was defeated by reason of letters from two 
 Congregational ministers of Marblehead, Mass, At last he 
 received holy orders in 1739 at the age of 59 and was appointed 
 missionary of the S. P. G. at Providence, R. I., where he 
 remained until his death in 1753. 
 
 A reprint of his book, together with an account of his trial, 
 was published at Windsor, Vt., in 1812. 
 
IN AMERICA. 25 
 
 In 1725, Samuel Johnson, Dr. Cutler, and other clergymen 
 of New England, petitioned the S. P. G. for Bishops. In 1727, 
 largely through the efforts of Dean Berkeley, a charter and a 
 grant for a Bishop in America was obtained, but the king died 
 before it was sealed. 
 
 In 1732, Queen's Chapel at Portsmouth, N. H., was begun. 
 The Rev. Arthur Brown was its Rector from 1736 until his 
 death in 1773. Of the six hundred families in Portsmouth, less 
 than sixt}^ were Episcopal, but all the Churchmen in New 
 Hampshire were Mr. Brown's parishioners. In 1767, his 
 church was the only one in the Province. 
 
 Georgia was the first and only Colony where the Church was 
 founded wholly by charity. General James Oglethorpe 
 obtained a charter for a colony and with the first emigrants 
 landed there in 1733. Twenty-one disinterested noblemen and 
 gentlemen constituted its trustees and over one hundred minis- 
 ters received commissions to take up collections in England in 
 behalf of Georgia. In December, 1735, John and Charles Wes- 
 ley came there, full of zeal for the conversion of the Indians. 
 Mr. John Wesley was made Rector of Christ Church, Savannah, 
 and here he established the first Sunday School, nearly fifty 
 years before Robert Raikes established them in England. In 
 1738, George Whitefield, as missionary of the S. P. G., started 
 for Georgia to assist Wesley, but they crossed each other on the 
 way. Whitefield arrived at Savannah, May 7, 1738. It was 
 not long before he instituted such a series of irregularities as to 
 lose the sympathy of the more pronounced Churchmen. In 
 1748 the Rev. Bartholomew Zouberbudler, Rector of Christ 
 Church, Savannah, was the only minister in Georgia. 
 
 Those who opposed the appointment of Bishops in America 
 argued that it would lead to a separation of the Colonies from 
 England. A letter to the Bishop of London from Dr. Samuel 
 Johnson, Nov. 3, 1738, says there is no " disposition towards an 
 independency on our mother country from our general desire 
 of Bishops to preside over us, the reverse of this is the 
 truth . . . we must patiently submit and wait upon Provi- 
 dence till it shall please God to enlighten the minds of men, 
 and send us better times." 
 
 In consequence of the unreasonable opposition of the Anti- 
 Episcopal ministers to the appointment of Bishops in the 
 
26 THE CHURCH 
 
 Colonies, the Bishops in England, who in 1750 advocated such 
 appointment, took pains at the outset to disarm all possible 
 hostility by having the authority of Colonial Bishops specifi- 
 cally limited to the Church of England congregations, and that 
 no taxes be laid upon the people for the Bishop's support. 
 
 The first missionary of the Church to Africa was the Rev. 
 Thomas Thompson, who left New Jersey for Africa in 175 1. 
 
 Funds were raised for King's College of New York, (now 
 Columbia College,) in 1746 to 175 1. In the latter year these 
 funds were vested in ten trustees, one Presbyterian, two Dutch 
 Reformed, and seven Episcopalians. In 1753 Dr. Samuel John- 
 son of Stratford was elected its first President. On July 17, 
 1754 he opened the College with a class of eight in a vestry 
 room belonging to Trinity Church, New York. 
 
 In 1755, all of the students of Yale College were compelled 
 to worship at the College Chapel, so that Episcopal students 
 could not attend Trinity Church on Sunday. The two sons of 
 Missionary Punderson were forced to comply with this rule. 
 Scholars were fined for attending Church of England service, 
 communicants only being excepted and that only on Christmas 
 and Sacrament days. 
 
 On April 2, 1756, the College of William and Mary con- 
 ferred the degree of Master of Arts upon Benjamin Franklin. 
 This was the first honorary degree ever given by the College. 
 
 The passage of the stamp act was taken advantage of about 
 1764 and 5 to raise a fresh clamor against an Episcopate in 
 America. 
 
 About the last effort of the Episcopalians before the Revolu- 
 tionary war to secure a Bishop for America was on May 21, 
 1766, when 14 clergymen met in voluntary convention at New 
 York. They were from New York, New Jersey, and Connecti- 
 cut. Samuel Seabury of Westchester, N. Y., was Clerk. They 
 wrote a letter to the Secretary of the S. P. G. referring to the 
 loss of Wilson and Giles, saying — " This loss brings to our 
 minds an exact calculation made not many years ago, that not 
 less than one out of five who have gone for Holy Orders from 
 the Northern Colonies have perished in the attempt, ten have 
 miscarried out of fifty-one. This we consider an incontestable 
 argument for the necessity of the American Bishops." About 
 
IN AMERICA. 27 
 
 this time, the Episcopate was largely discussed in the news- 
 papers, in pamphlets, and in sermons, both by Episcopalians 
 and their opponents. In the same month that this Episcopal 
 Convention was held, the Presbyterian " Synod of New York 
 and Philadelphia " at their annual meeting, originated a plan 
 of concerted action to prevent the establishment of an Episco- 
 pate. The " General Association of Connecticut," (Congrega- 
 tionalist,) at their June meeting at Guilford, 1766, received an 
 invitation to join the Presbyterian Synod of New York and 
 Philadelphia, in convention for " Consultation about such things 
 as may have a hopeful tendency to promote and defend the 
 Common Cause of Religion against the attacks of its various 
 Enemies." The invitation was accepted and delegates appointed. 
 Accordingly a convention was held at Elizabeth, N. J., begin- 
 ning Nov. 5, 1766, and their organization perfected. Twenty 
 members were present from the Synod and eight from Connecti- 
 cut. They provided for a general convention of the pastors of 
 the Congregational, Consociated and Presbyterian Churches in 
 North America, consisting of delegates chosen by their re- 
 spective bodies, to be held annually, and agreed that the next 
 convention should be held at New Haven, Sept. 10, 1767. The 
 general design of the convention was to gain information and 
 unite in " spreading the Gospel, and defending the religious 
 liberties of our Churches, keep up a correspondence throughout 
 this united body and with our friends abroad " and to " culti- 
 vate and preserve loyalty " to the king. It was also agreed 
 that letters be sent to the Rev. Ministers of the Congregational 
 and Presybterian Churches of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, 
 and Rhode Island, and the Dutch Reformed Churches of New 
 York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, " informing them what 
 we have done at this General Convention and invite them to 
 send delegates to New Haven." Appended to the minutes of 
 this meeting is a supposed letter from a gentleman in the 
 Colonies to his foreign correspondent, setting forth at length 
 what a terrible calamity it would be to have a Bishop in 
 America and his great anxiety on that account. Also a letter 
 from Mr. Francis Alison to Mr. Sproat, setting forth his 
 reasons for being persuaded that there was a determination or 
 fixed resolution in England to send Bishops to America. 
 
28 THE CHURCH 
 
 This was probably the first General Convention of any- 
 religious body ever held in America and it met annually for ten 
 successive years. The only enemies of religion referred to in 
 their proceedings were Episcopalians, and from beginning to 
 end the only business before the Convention was for the pur- 
 pose of preventing a Bishop, or Bishops, being established in 
 this country. The invitations to attend were broad and 
 included every religious body in the whole country who either 
 feared or hated an Episcopal Bishop. In short, it was a great 
 uprising of all who were opposed to an Episcopate and it may 
 be properly designated as the Anti-Episcopal Convention. 
 
 Its Journal was printed by E. Gleason, Hartford, Conn., 1843, 
 under the direction of a committee of the General Association 
 of Connecticut, and entitled " Minutes of the Convention of 
 Delegates from the Synod of New York and Philadelphia and 
 from the Associations of Connecticut held annually from 1766 
 to 1775, inclusive." 
 
 Their ten Conventions were held in September, October or 
 November, as follows: — 1766, '68, '70, '72 and '74 at Elizabeth- 
 town, N. J. ; 1767 and '69, New Haven, Conn. ; 1771, Norwalk, 
 Conn.; 1773, Stamford, Conn.; 1775, Greenfield, Conn. 
 Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Hampshire were repre- 
 sented at their second Convention and several other colonies 
 were represented later. "Committees were appointed to carry 
 on a correspondence with " our friends," (Dissenters,) in Eng- 
 land and the pastors of the various colonies. Long letters to 
 and from the committee of Dissenters in London were before 
 the Convention nearly every year. Correspondence was also 
 extended to Scotland and Ireland, and throughout the Ameri- 
 can Colonies. They wrote to Maryland, Virginia, Georgia and 
 the Carolinas for " all instances of Episcopal oppression they 
 can find in said colonies," to the Eastern Colonies for 
 " instances of the lenity of their government with regard to 
 Episcopal Dissenters therein." Committees were appointed for 
 the various colonies, including Nova Scotia, Canada and West 
 Florida, to examine their laws and charters relating to ecclesi- 
 astical afifairs, with reference to the religious liberties of any 
 denomination, and particularly " to ascertain the number of 
 
IN AMERICA. 29 
 
 inhabitants in each of the Colonies with the proportion of the 
 Episcopalians to the Non-Episcopalians." 
 
 Reports on these matters were received from New York, 
 Connecticut, Massachusetts, Virginia, North Carolina, South 
 Carolina, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Maryland, 
 Georgia, Nova Scotia and Barbadoes. 
 
 Their letter to the Dissenters of London in 1773 stated that 
 the " Episcopalians in the colony of New York bear the pro- 
 portion of about one to twenty of its present population, Con- 
 necticut a greater proportion. In New Jersey and Pennsyl- 
 vania their proportionate numbers are less." In Massachusetts, 
 Rhode Island and New Hampshire, " they are much less still." 
 In the Southern Colonies, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, 
 South Carolina and Georgia, " the Non-Episcopalians are in 
 some of them a majority, and in the rest a large and growing 
 proportion." 
 
 The report of the Rev. Elizur Goodrich of Durham, Conn., 
 as to Connecticut, is the only one preserved and is printed in 
 full in the appendix. It makes the Episcopalians of Connecti- 
 cut in 1774 number about one to thirteen of the whole number 
 of inhabitants. 
 
 The object of this census was to belittle the Episcopalians 
 and show " the vast superiority in numbers of the Non-Epis- 
 copalians," in the hopes that if such facts were known in Eng- 
 land the chances for an American Bishop would be lessened. 
 The numerous letters to and from their friends in England show 
 how alarmed they were '' from the restlessness of the mission- 
 aries and their bigoted adherents," and although the Episco- 
 palians were apparently quiet, they said, " We have reason to 
 believe that the bigoted Episcopalians on this side of the water 
 have by no means dropt the project, but will ever be restless in 
 their attempts to accomplish their purpose." One letter says 
 Dr. S. (Episcopal) "told me that they would have Bishops 
 settled in America in spite of all the Presbyterian opposition, 
 and added that the Quakers and Baptists would join them 
 against us." The Convention admitted repeatedly that they 
 would not oppose Bishops "provided other denominations could 
 be safe from their severit}^ and encroachments, but this we think 
 
3© THE CHURCH 
 
 impossible," and because they thought this impossible they 
 determined to oppose the Episcopate with all their might. 
 
 They refer to our forefathers as having " seen and felt the 
 tyranny of Bishops' courts," and added : " Such tyranny if 
 now exercised in America would either drive us to seek new 
 habitations among the heathen ... or excite riots, rebel- 
 lion and wild disorder. We dread the consequences as oft as 
 we think of this danger." " We can not but tremble at the 
 prospect of the dreadful consequences that could not be pre- 
 vented from taking place upon the establishment of an Ameri- 
 can Episcopate," and all this, they say, " without doing any real 
 service to religion or to the Episcopal Church." 
 
 Again, they complain of the S. P. G. for granting consider- 
 able salaries to " missionaries in the most populous parts of our 
 colonies even where there are faithful ministers of other 
 denominations settled, and but few families of their religious 
 persuasion." We may here state that there is not a single 
 instance in which this Society ever appointed a missionary 
 to any parish in America until the parish asked them to do so. 
 
 One letter to the committee of Dissenters in London says : — 
 "The peculiar care of the Episcopalians among ourselves, where 
 they have influence, to fill all places of power and trust in our 
 various governments with those of their own denomination 
 . . . seems calculated to promote their grand design . . , 
 These considerations make it evident to us that their views are 
 not so much to promote Christianity as the establishment of 
 Episcopal Church government in the colonies, and therefore 
 engage our constant watchfulness lest they should take the 
 advantage of our being off our guard to accomplish a design, 
 which however pleasing to them, will be attended with the most 
 lamentable consequences to the interest of true religion and 
 liberty among us." 
 
 The number of those who belonged to the Church in America 
 was never so large as some supposed. At the beginning of the 
 war there were only about 80 clergymen to the north and east 
 of Maryland. These, except in Boston, Newport and Phila- 
 delphia, were mainly supported by the S. P. G. There were not 
 more than six in Pennsylvania outside of Philadelphia. In 
 Maryland and Virginia the Church was supported by legal 
 
IN AMERICA. 31 
 
 establishment. There were more Churchmen in the other 
 Southern Colonies than in the north, but not so many as in 
 Viro^inia and Maryland. 
 
 All efforts on the part of the Episcopalians for a Bishop 
 practically ceased in 1776. The Episcopalians were closer to 
 the king than any other people in America, and as hatred to the 
 king increased with the excitement and hardships of the Revolu- 
 tion, the Episcopalians were despised, hated, persecuted with 
 greater zeal, and finally almost silenced. 
 
 In 1782, the Rev. Dr. White, (afterwards Bishop,) believing 
 that the war would be indefinitely protracted, published a 
 pamphlet advocating the adoption by the Episcopalians of a 
 Presbyterian form of government. 
 
 In March, 1783, ten of the fourteen clergymen of Connecti- 
 cut met at Woodbury and decided to reply to Dr. White's 
 pamphlet and to elect a Bishop. The Rev. Jeremiah Leaming 
 was their first choice, but on account of his infirmities, they 
 elected Dr. Samuel Seabury, who went to England for consecra- 
 tion, arriving in London, July 7, 1783. 
 
 On Aug. 13, 1783, the Churchmen of Maryland met in con- 
 vention at Annapolis and adopted a document concerning 
 fundamental rights and liberties " of the Protestant Episcopal 
 Church." This is claimed by some to have been the first use 
 of the name Protestant Episcopal, but Bishop Perry's History 
 says that a convention met at Chestertown, Md., Nov. 9, 1780, 
 and voted that the " Church known in the province as 'Protest- 
 ant' be called 'the Protestant Episcopal Church'." 
 
 The first step towards forming a collective body of the 
 Episcopal Church was at New Brunswick, N. J., in May, 1784, 
 by clergymen from New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, 
 who arranged for a larger meeting at New York in October of 
 that year. 
 
 The Rev. Samuel Seabury, by reason of the " Erastian 
 notiohs which prevailed in the Church, the machinations of 
 English politicians, and the arguments of influential Congrega- 
 tionalists in Connecticut," failed of consecration in England 
 and consequently turned to Scotland, where he was consecrated 
 Bishop, at Aberdeen, Nov. 14, 1784. On Aug. 2, 1785, Bishop 
 Seabury met his clergy at Middletown, Conn., and four persons 
 
32 THE CHURCH 
 
 were made deacons. This was the first ordination in America. 
 Three days later a committee was appointed to act with the 
 Bishop in proposing necessary changes in the Prayer Book. 
 The New York Convention of October, 1784 had agreed to 
 " adhere to the Hturgy of the . . . Church as far as shall 
 be consistent with the American Revolution.'' 
 
 The first General Convention of the Church in America met 
 at Christ Church, Philadelphia, Sept. 27, 1785, and consisted of 
 clergy and lay representatives from seven states. Bishop Sea- 
 bury and his clergy declined to attend this Convention. Many 
 radical changes in the Prayer Book were proposed. The book 
 was published in 1786, and was known as the " Proposed Book," 
 because the changes made therein had never been formally 
 adopted. The Scottish Bishops who consecrated Bishop Sea- 
 bury desired that he should use the Scotch Communion Office 
 as far as practicable, and accordingly he prepared such Office, 
 which was printed at New London in 1786 and distributed for 
 general use. 
 
 The first consecration of a church in America was at Nor- 
 walk. Conn., July, 1786. 
 
 On Sunday, Feb. 4, 1787, the Rev. William White, Bishop- 
 elect of Pennsylvania, and Rev. Samuel Provoost, Bishop-elect 
 of New York, were consecrated at London. A special act of 
 Parliament had to be passed before this could take place, and 
 this act was limited to the establishment of a College of Bishops 
 for America. A union of the Dioceses was effected at the Gen- 
 eral Convention held July to October, 1789, at Christ Church, 
 Philadelphia, when the Constitution of the Church was adopted 
 and the Prayer Book revised, thus perfecting the organization 
 of the Church in America. The first House of Bishops con- 
 sisted of Bishops White and Seabury, and nothing was admitted 
 into the Prayer Book that was not approved by both. The new 
 Book went into use Oct. i, 1790. Methodism was first intro- 
 duced in America at New York in 1766. This child of the 
 Church continued to use the Book of Common Prayer until 
 about 1790. 
 
 The Rev. James Madison, D.D., was elected Bishop of Vir- 
 ginia and consecrated at Lambeth Palace Chapel, Sept. 17, 
 1790. Of the Church in America in 1790, there were 7 Dio- 
 
IN AMERICA. 33 
 
 ceses and 190 clergy ; in 1904, 62 Dioceses, 23 Missionary 
 Jurisdictions with 91 Bishops and 5,058 clergy. 
 
 In the year 1790 thirty Congregational families at Clare- 
 mont, N. H., joined the Episcopal Church in a body. 
 
 The first consecration of a Bishop in America was at New 
 York, Sept. 17, 1792, when Thomas John Claggett, D.D., was 
 consecrated as Bishop of Maryland. 
 
 In 1794, the Rev. Samuel Peters, D.D., formerly of Con- 
 necticut, but then residing in England, was elected Bishop of 
 Vermont and attempted to receive consecration in England. 
 This was denied him for various reasons, some of which were 
 that it was contrary to the act of Parliament of 1786, and that it 
 would be disrespectful to the American Bishops. 
 
 Shortly after the Revolution, King's Chapel in Boston had 
 been appropriated by the Unitarians, so that in the year 1797 
 there were only two Episcopal parishes in Boston, Trinity 
 and Christ Churches. 
 
 The first Almanac designed especially for Churchmen was 
 published in 1816, by T. & J. Swords, New York City. It 
 contained a list of all the clergy in the United States together 
 with the Dioceses, parishes and various organizations. It has 
 been continued by the Swords and their successor, Mr. 
 Thomas Whittaker of New York, up to the present time. 
 
 In the strongholds of the Congregationalists, Massachusetts 
 and Connecticut, Episcopalians and others after a while were 
 " tolerated " by law, and Connecticut recognized them as " sober 
 dissenters " in 1708, but it was not until 1818 that all religious 
 denominations were placed on precisely the same footing in 
 Connecticut, and it was not until 1830 that Congregationalism 
 ceased to be the established religion in Massachusetts. 
 
 Authorities : Bishop Perry's History of the American Episco- 
 pal Church ; Bishop Coleman's History of the Church in 
 America ; The Church Cyclopedia ; Dr. Beardsley's Life of 
 Samuel Johnson ; Documentary History of the Church in Ver- 
 mont ; Journal of the Anti-Episcopal Convention. 1766-75; 
 Records of Convocation, Diocese of Connecticut ; Wilberforce's 
 P. E. C. in America ; History of the S. P. G. Society. 
 
II. THE CHURCH IN CONNECTICUT 
 
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 CERTIFICATE BY BISHOP SEABURY. 
 
THE CHURCH IN CONNECTICUT 
 
 HISTORY 
 
 The early towns or plantations in Connecticut were first 
 settled as religious societies. These societies each brought with 
 them their minster, and the ministers and people, who had been 
 educated and trained in the Episcopal Church, were dissenters. 
 It was only in matters of worship and Church government that 
 they dissented. In all the cardinal doctrines of religion their 
 beliefs were the same. Even as late as 1774, the Rev. Elizur 
 Goodrich of Durham, a prominent Congregationalist, declared 
 that the principles and faith of the Congregationalists was in 
 general the same as that contained in the doctrinal articles of 
 the Church of England. But in matters on which the Puritans 
 dissented, they were very emphatic and radical. To worship in 
 their own way and manage their Church afifairs without refer- 
 ence to any one else, was the main object of their coming to 
 America. In this way, the people of the several towns were 
 practically all of one mind, both as to their civil and religious 
 government. While the Church was, in a sense, separate from 
 the town, the distinction was not clear, and there was practically 
 no distinction between the town and the ecclesiastical society, 
 all matters relating to the society being voted upon in town 
 meeting until about 1657. Until 1669, there was precisely the 
 same number of ecclesiastical societies in the Colony as there 
 were towns or plantations. Every town before 1658 was, for 
 anything in the laws of the Colony, free to establish worship 
 according to the practices of any denomination, (excepting such 
 as were considered notorious heretics), but no one expected to 
 follow any other than the " Congregational way." Laws for 
 the support of ministers were passed in 1644; compulsory 
 attendance on " Gospel service " and respect for the ministers 
 was enacted in 1650. No exceptions were made, so that every 
 
38 THE CHURCH 
 
 one had to attend service, and all males over 16 years of age, 
 whether saints or sinners, had to pay their due proportion for 
 supporting the minister. When part of the people were dis- 
 satisfied with the Gospel Service, and their number was large 
 enough, they banded together, went to some new field and 
 established a new plantation and ecclesiastical society by them- 
 selves. 
 
 In 1657, for local causes not necessary to mention, a party 
 led by Elder Goodwin attempted to withdraw from the Church 
 at Hartford and start a second Congregational Church and 
 society in that town. The Legislature was equal to the occa- 
 sion and all persons were prohibited from embodying them- 
 selves " into Church estate without consent of the General Court 
 and approbation of the neighboring Churches." After this date 
 new ecclesiastical societies applied to the General Court for 
 permission to organize. But, for the particular benefit of the 
 Hartford seceders, the General Court further enacted a law 
 forbidding the people from attending any ministry or Church 
 administration " distinct and separate from and in opposition to 
 that which is dispensed by the settled and approved minister of 
 the place." This resulted in the removal of the seceders to 
 Hadley, Mass. In 1656 severe laws were passed against 
 " Quakers, Ranters, Adamites, or such like notorious Heri- 
 tiques," and this is the first mention by name in the statutes of 
 any religious sect or denomination. There were no such sec- 
 taries then in Connecticut, but Quakers had arrived in Boston 
 and this law was passed at the recommendation of the Commis- 
 sioners for the United Colonies. 
 
 The first record of the name of any denomination not con- 
 sidered heretical is dated October, 1664, when William Pitkin, 
 John Steadman and Robert Reeve, of Hartford, Michael 
 Humphreys, James Enno, John Moses, and Jonas Westover, 
 of Windsor, presented a memorial to the General Assembly 
 stating that they were members of " the Church of England " ; 
 that they were not given the Communion, and that their chil- 
 dren were not baptized ; and praying that " no law shall make us 
 pay or contribute for the maintenance of any minister or officer 
 in the Church that will neglect or refuse to baptize our children 
 and to take care of us as members of the Church." [Ecclesi- 
 
IN CONNECTICUT. 39 
 
 astical manuscripts, Vol. i, Doc. lo, b.] Whether these men 
 were in fact Episcopalians or not depends upon when they were 
 members of the Church of England, for that Church was 
 legally Presbyterian from 1645 to 1660. Whatever they 
 desired, it is clear that they did not expect nor ask for the 
 establishment of worship in accordance with the usages of the 
 Episcopal Church. The Court recommended the ministers and 
 Churches to entertain persons " who are of an honest and godly 
 conversation " by an " explicit covenant and that they have their 
 children baptized." Stiles' "Windsor," Vol. i, p. 196, says 
 that a copy of this recommendation or act was sent to every 
 minister in the Colony. This was the beginning of the legal 
 establishment of the so-called half-way covenant which cul- 
 minated in legalizing the Saybrook Platform, in 1708. The 
 standard of morals and religion that would entitle one to have 
 his children baptized is not stated in the act of 1664, but pre- 
 suming the law to have been applicable to the memorialists, we 
 may say that the General Court acknowledged members of the 
 " Church of England " to be persons " of an honest and godly 
 conversation." 
 
 Two years later, (Nov. 22, 1666,) this same William Pitkin 
 and John Steadman with four others, viz., Joseph Fitch, 
 Nicholas Olmstead, Jno. Gilbert and Edward Grannis, called on 
 Mr. Whiting, (minister of the First Church of Hartford,) and 
 requested full privileges " in all the ordinances of Christ," on 
 account " of a union they had already," referring to their 
 Church membership in England. Mr. Whiting knew of no 
 such union but agreed to consider the matter. [Walker's 
 History First Church, p. 200.] The first mention by name in 
 the laws of the Colony of any orthodox denomination is in the 
 act of May, 1669, whereby the " Congregational " Churches 
 (profession and practice) were approved, and others " ortliodox 
 and sound in the fundamentals of Christian religion, may have 
 allowance of their perswasion and profession in church ways or 
 assemblies without disturbance." This in effect prevented the 
 law of 1657 from being applied to any ministry or Church 
 administration other than Congregationalists. 
 
 Such application of the law was also prevented by the law of 
 1665, which gave all persons full and free liberty to worship 
 
40 THE CHURCH 
 
 God in the way they think best, provided they make no disturb- 
 ance of the pubHc or minister's support. Thus the way was 
 open for all denominations to organize new societies, subject 
 to the approval of the General Court. In October, 1669, the 
 Second Church at Hartford was legally established and given 
 permission to " practice the Congregational way without dis- 
 turbance." This is the first instance in Connecticut of two 
 ecclesiastical societies in one town. For more than ten years 
 the " half-way covenant " had been agitated, so that there were 
 two kinds of Congregationalists then in the Colony, the old and 
 straight kind that would baptize the children of none but those 
 who were " fit for the Lord's Supper," and the new and large 
 kind that would baptize the children of those who were " not 
 yet fit for the Lord's Supper," provided they were persons " of 
 an honest and godly conversation," or, according to the General 
 Assembly of 1664, provided they had as much religion as mem- 
 bers of the Church of England were supposed to have. The 
 Second Church of Hartford was the first in the Colony that 
 made a special issue of straight Congregationalism in its forma- 
 tion, but notwithstanding this fact, it was overcome by the 
 raging tide that swept over nearly all the Congregational 
 Churches in the Colony, and it began immediately to practice the 
 half-way covenant. 
 
 By request. Gov. Leete reported to the English Commis- 
 sioners for Trade and Foreign Plantations on July 15, 1680, 
 that " in our corporation are 26 towns and there is one and 
 twenty churches in them. In one of them, (Hartford,) we 
 have two churches. Our people are some strict Congrega- 
 tional men, others more large Congregational men, and some 
 moderate Presbyterians ; and, take the Congregational men of 
 both sorts, they are the greatest part of the people." 
 
 " There are 4 or 5 Seven day men and about so many more 
 Quakers." 
 
 These Seven-day men and Quakers were probably the 
 Rogerenes of New London, founded about 1675. They were 
 variously called Quakers and Baptists, and no other Seven-day 
 men or Quakers are known to have been in the Colony at that 
 date. The Rogerenes were the first disturbing sect within our 
 borders. The Presbyterians and Congregationalists were so 
 
IN CONNECTICUT. 41 
 
 nearly alike as to be considered practically the same, and appar- 
 ently there was no trouble as to taxes, with the sinners who may 
 have resided in the Colony. The first general complaint against 
 compulsory minister's support came from the Rogerenes, in the 
 memorial of Richard Steere et al. of New London, to the Gen- 
 eral Assembly, dated Jan. i6, 1694-5. It was a tirade against 
 the Colonial Government, based largely on alleged violations 
 of the English act of toleration. We quote the following: 
 
 "For do not the Presbyterian party here being most numerous 
 and powerful forcably seize by Distress the estates of some and 
 threaten to do the like by others of their fellow dissenters, viz.. 
 Baptist and Quaker, for the building of a Presbyterian meeting 
 house and for the maintainence of a Presybterian minister. 
 Nor are such who are of the Church of England Communion 
 like to fare any better, though the same is contrary to nature, 
 reason and the laws of the realm of England." 
 
 Their expression of contempt for the civil authority seems 
 to have been the main object of this memorial, rather than relief 
 from taxes, and Steere was promptly called to answer for his 
 contempt. The reference to "the Church of England Com- 
 munion " in this memorial was probably for effect, as no 
 Churchmen were known to have been in the vicinity of New 
 London at that date. There were, however, about ten or fifteen 
 families then at Stratford, " who had been born and bred in 
 England " and were already Episcopalians. From them came 
 the first expression in this Colony of a desire for the services 
 of the Church. Some of them were in Stratford about 1675, 
 but it was not until 1702, after the Society for the Propagation 
 of the Gospel in Foreign Parts had been organized, that they 
 petitioned for a missionary. 
 
 The first preaching in Connecticut by Episcopal ministers 
 was Sept. 13, 1702, when the Rev. John Talbot, missionary of 
 the S. P. G., preached at New London in the Congregational 
 Church in the forenoon, and the Rev. George Keith, his com- 
 panion, in the afternoon. They were invited to preach there 
 by the minister. Rev. Gurdon Saltonstall, who entertained them 
 at his house. After the morning service they were invited to 
 dinner by Governor Winthrop, who also entertained them at 
 
42 THE CHURCH 
 
 his house " then and the next day." This was the only stop in 
 1702 of these missionaries in Connecticut. 
 
 On Oct. 26, 1704, the Rev. Mr. Vesey of Trinity Church, 
 New York, wrote to the Secretary of the S. P. G. that " Mr. 
 George Muirson, a sober, ingenious youth designs, God wilHng 
 to receive Holy Orders and is recommended by my Ld. Corn- 
 bury & the Reve'rd. Clergy convened at New York." Some- 
 time in 1705, the Churchmen of Stratford, Conn., applied to 
 Mr. Vesey for services at Stratford. Mr. Muirson was sta- 
 tioned as missionary at Rye, N. Y., before Nov. 21, 1705, on 
 which day he wrote that he had " lately been in ye Government 
 of Connecticut where I observe some people well affected to ye 
 Church." The people of Connecticut were then attending 
 services at Rye on Sundays. 
 
 On Sept. 2, 1706, Missionary Muirson came in company with 
 Col. Caleb Heathcote to Stratford, and Mr. Muirson preached 
 both forenoon and afternoon to a numerous congregation and 
 baptized about twenty-four persons. Inasmuch as Keith's 
 Journal makes no mention of services at New London in 1702, 
 other than preaching, this service at Stratford is supposed to 
 have been the first in Connecticut, in accordance with the Book 
 of Common Prayer. The Churchmen of Stratford applied to 
 the authorities for the use of the meeting house, (which the 
 Churchmen had helped to build,) but this request was refused. 
 Mr. Muirson says that the people of Stratford " ignorantly 
 called " the Church "Rome's sister." Col. Heathcote writes to 
 the Society that they found the " Colony much as we expected, 
 very ignorant of the constitution of our Church and for that 
 reason great enemies to it." 
 
 At the second coming to Stratford of Messrs. Muirson and 
 Heathcote, (they were there three times before April 4, 1707,) 
 Mr. Joseph Curtice and James Hudson read a paper to Mr. 
 Muirson forbidding him, under threats of fine and imprison- 
 ment, from holding service or administering the Sacrament, 
 the purport of which paper Mr. Muirson says " was to let me 
 know that I had done an illegal thing in coming among them 
 to establish a new way of worship, and to forewarn me from 
 preaching any more. And this he did by virtue of one of their 
 laws." Mr. Muirson asked for a copy of the paper and was 
 
IN CONNECTICUT, 43 
 
 refused. The day following, Curtice and others stood in the 
 highway and forbade any to go to the assembly of Churchmen. 
 The ministers and magistrates were remarkably industrious, 
 going from house to house and persuading the people from 
 hearing Mr. Muirson and threatening fines and imprisonment 
 to all who should go to hear him. Mr. Muirson describes the 
 law that the officers read to him with such accuracy as to clearly 
 identify it as the act of March 8, 1657-8 that was enacted to sup- 
 press the seceding Congregationalists of Hartford, and which 
 prohibited people from entertaining or attending any minis- 
 try or Church administration " distinct and separate from and 
 in opposition to " that which is dispensed by the settled and 
 approved minister of the place. A minister or Church adminis- 
 tration could not be in opposition to another, unless they were 
 both of the same persuasion. The true intent and object of the 
 law was to regulate the Congregational Churches. It could not 
 have been intended to apply to any other denomination, for 
 there was not then in the Colony any body of people of any 
 other persuasion. The toleration act of 1669 gave all Dis- 
 senters from the Congregational way, who were orthodox and 
 sound in the fundamentals of Christian religion, the right to 
 worship in their own way " without disturbance." But this 
 act was omitted from the revision of 1702 and no substitute for 
 it was enacted until 1708, and thus, at this particular time, 
 (1707,) there was no law to modify the law of 1657, which was 
 so vaguely worded as to be improperly applied to suppress 
 Churchmen, although it was never so intended. This one 
 instance at Stratford is the only record we have of any attempt 
 to so use this law. There never was a law of the Colony that 
 could have been properly used to prevent Episcopalians having 
 a minister in orders from assembling and worshipping God in 
 accordance with the rules of the Church. 
 
 Beardsley's " History of the Church in Connecticut " says : 
 When the Commissioners of Charles Second visited Connecti- 
 cut in 1665, they reported to England that the Colony " will 
 not hinder any from enjoying the Sacrament and using the 
 Common Prayer Book, provided they hinder not the mainten- 
 ance of the public minister." " But the Commissioners could 
 not have meant by this statement that there was any legal pro- 
 
44 THE CHURCH 
 
 vision for such liberty. . . . For there was no letting- up of 
 the Puritan rigor, nor relaxation of the rule that none should 
 have liberty to worship God publicly, except after the order of 
 the religion estabhshed by the civil Government until 1708." 
 In this Beardsley was clearly in error. The law of April, 1665, 
 (which had just been enacted,) provided for that liberty of 
 worship which the Commissioners reported, and so did the law 
 of 1669, while it was in force. In fact the toleration act of 
 1665 was the most liberal of all and applied to " all persons of 
 civil lives " giving them full liberty to " worship God in that 
 way which they think best." The act of 1669 was restricted 
 to persons " orthodox and sound in the fundamentals of 
 Christian religion," while the act of 1708 was still farther re- 
 stricted, and encumbered, each successive toleration act making 
 liberty to " worship God in that way they think best " still more 
 difificult than it had been before. " Quakers, Ranters, Adamites, 
 or such like notorious heretiques," are the only sectaries that 
 were ever prohibited, or against whom any law was ever directly 
 enacted, and the law against them was repealed in May, 1706. 
 Mr. Muirson wrote to England that the laws here " deny a 
 liberty of conscience to the Church of England people, as well 
 as to others," and that such denial is " repugnant to the laws 
 of England." He therefore disregarded the attempted applica- 
 tion of the law to him because such an application was a clear 
 violation of the English toleration act, which guaranteed to 
 all freedom to worship God in their own way. The people of 
 Stratford were not intimidated by the acts of the authorities. 
 On the contrary, more and more came to hear Mr. Muirson 
 and to receive baptism and the Holy Communion, many of 
 whom had never received it before. 
 
 Mr. Muirson writes to the Secretary of the S. P. G. under 
 date of April 4, 1707, that on invitation, he had lately preached 
 in a private house at Fairfield and baptized some children. The 
 Rev. Mr. Evans of Philadelphia was with him. He also asks 
 the Society to send over some Common Prayer Books and some 
 small treatise in defense of the Church. For years after, this 
 request for Church books was often and earnestly repeated 
 by the several missionaries. The Church at Stratford was 
 
IN CONNECTICUT. 45 
 
 organized by Mr. Muirson, and wardens and vestrymen elected 
 in April, 1707. 
 
 Under date of April 14, 1707, Col. Heathcote writes that 
 Mr. Read, the minister at Stratford, had come over to the 
 Church and had been dismissed. Again, under date of Feb. 
 24, 1707-8, he says : " I acquainted you in my former letter 
 that there was a very ingenious gentleman at Stratford, one 
 Mr. Read the Minister of that place, who is very inclinable to 
 come over to the Church. By reason of this, he has undergone 
 persecution by his people who do all in their power to starve 
 him." Mr. Heathcote desired Mr. Read to go to England for 
 orders, and writes that in case of " any proposal of his coming 
 over for ordination, his family, which is pretty large, must be 
 taken care of." This was the Rev. John Read, Congregation- 
 alist minister at Stratford. In Orcutt's " History of Strat- 
 ford " we find that he was called to Stratford in May, 1703, 
 and very soon after, Sept. 25, 1706, " perhaps before, some 
 talk was indulged in by the public which Mr. Read resented 
 and demanded inquiry." " No indication as to what was said 
 offensive to Mr. Read . . . has been found except the 
 intimation that he had made overtures to join the Episcopal 
 Church." He resigned March 27, 1707. He was the first 
 Congregational minister in Connecticut to go over to the 
 Church and also the first person to do so whose name is 
 known. Perhaps he was one of the ministers who had 
 opposed the services of the Church at Stratford. 
 
 He was born 1673, graduated at Harvard 1697, married 
 Ruth, daughter of Major John Talcott of Hartford, preached 
 at Waterbury, 1698-9, at East Hartford two years, then at 
 Stratford, 1703 to 1707, removed to New Mil ford and settled 
 in a log hut, bought large tracts of land of the Indians, was 
 involved in large and unsuccessful land litigation and was 
 finally rewarded by a grant of 20,000 acres of land from the 
 General Court. Part of this land was in the present town of 
 Redding, (originally spelled Reading,) the town being named 
 after Mr. Read, whose son John was one of its first settlers. 
 The people at New Mil ford used Mr. Read's house as a place 
 of worship, Mr. Read himself preaching there occasionally. 
 He was admitted to the bar in 1708 and then both preached and 
 
46 THE CHURCH 
 
 practiced. In 17 12 was appointed Queen's Attorney for the 
 Colony; removed to Boston in 1722, where he was a successful 
 lawyer, Attorney General of that Colony, and a Communicant 
 at King's Chapel. He died at Boston, Feb. 14, 1748-9. [D. C. 
 Kilbourn in Connecticut Magazine, and Orcutt's History of 
 Stratford.] 
 
 Mr. Muirson extended his services into several places in 
 Fairfield County and was so well received that the Rev. John 
 Talbot, (who had probably preached there about that time,) 
 writes to Mr. Keith in February, 1707-8, that " Norwalk and 
 Fairfield are ready to break open their meeting house doors 
 and let him, (Mr. Muirson,) in if he would suffer it." And 
 also that they had " taken measures at Stratford to build a 
 church, which never was seen in that country before. I pray 
 God sent them an able minister of the New Testament for 
 they have been long enough under the old dispensation." 
 
 Mr. Muirson writes that the people of Connecticut " say the 
 sign of the cross is the mark of the beast and the sign of the 
 devil, and that those who receive it are given to the devil." 
 The Society finally tranferred Mr. Muirson from Rye to Strat- 
 ford, but he died Oct. 12, 1708, before he learned of this 
 appointment. The parish with about 30 communicants and a 
 respectable number of families was left to the occasional 
 services of missionaries who chanced to visit them. In 17 10 
 the Rev. John Sharpe, Chaplain to the Forces in the Fort of 
 New York, officiated frequently at Stratford and several other 
 places in Connecticut. Fie records in his diary the baptism at 
 Long Hill, Jan. 27, 1710, of " Isaac Styles, the first Man Child 
 born in the Colony of Connecticut, a man of 80 years of age." 
 In this year the people of Stratford petitioned for a missionary 
 and at length Rev. Francis Philips was appointed, arriving there 
 just before Christmas, 1712, and staying part of the time till 
 the mid-summer of 1713. He left without orders from, or the 
 knowledge or consent of the Society whose agent he was. But 
 the Church continued to grow, and on April 9, 17 14, they write 
 to Col. Heathcote that they " have at last got the timber felled 
 and do hope to have it raised in three months time," meaning 
 a house of worship. In order to prevent as much as possible 
 the growth of the Church in Stratford, the Standing Order, 
 
IN CONNECTICUT. 47 
 
 after consulting the rest of Connecticut and tlie wise men of 
 Boston, determined that one of the best preachers that both 
 Colonies could afford should be sought and sent to Stratford 
 to counteract the growth of the Church. Accordingly the Rev. 
 Timothy Cutler, then of Boston, or its vicinity, was settled at 
 Stratford. But while the Congregationalists were thus sup- 
 plied with an able minister, the poor Episcopalians had none. 
 Their house of worship did not materialize, and the venerable 
 Society failed to send them a missionary, although they 
 promised in 1720 to do so. Two years afterwards the Rev. 
 George Pigott was sent to them and on May 29, 1722, they say 
 of " his care over us, we are well satisfied that it will be to the 
 advantage of the Church." But about five years before Mr. 
 Pigott came, the Rev. Mr. Cutler had become the Rector of 
 Yale College, and little did the wise men who had placed him 
 at Stratford to check Episcopacy, dream that in eight short 
 years he would be the means of imparting to the Church in 
 Connecticut its first susbtantial growth, whereby the one poor 
 struggling Church in a single town was soon multiplied many 
 times, and extended throughout the western part of the Colony. 
 Not only in Connecticut, but throughout all the Colonies was 
 there great consternation when it became known, in 1722, that 
 Timothy Cutler, the Rector of Yale College, Daniel Brown 
 the tutor, and the Rev. Samuel Johnson, pastor of the Congre- 
 gational Church at West Haven, had declared for Episcopacy 
 and were going to England to receive ordination by a Bishop. 
 At this time there was not an Episcopal house of worship in 
 Connecticut and the little band at Stratford was the only 
 organized Church. The Rev. James Wetmore, Congregational 
 minister in North Haven, soon followed the others to England 
 for Episcopal ordination. Mr. Brown died in England, Cutler 
 and Johnson returned in the fall of 1723, Mr. Cutler going to 
 Christ Church at Boston, while Mr. Johnson relieved Mr. 
 Pigott at Christ Church, Stratford, the latter being transferred 
 to Providence. Mr. Wetmore eventually settled at Rye, N. Y. 
 Referring to the conversion of Dr. Cutler and his three com- 
 panions, Mr. Pigott says Oct. 3, 1722, " This great onset 
 towards a reformation in this deluded country has brought in 
 vast numbers to favor the Church of England." Newtown and 
 
48 THE CHURCH 
 
 Ripton, if not Fairfield, he adds, intend to petition the Society 
 for ministers. On Nov. 6, 1722, Mr. Pigott writes, " The sub- 
 scribers at Ripton have been of long standing inclined to the 
 Church, yet among them there are some lately brought over. 
 But those of Newtown to a man have been induced by my means 
 to embrace our profession. I believe two missionaries might 
 serve all four towns, that is one might attend on Stratford and 
 Fairfield and the other on Newtown and Ripton, alternately." 
 During the year ending June, 1723, sixty-seven new communi- 
 cants were added to the Church at Stratford, and when Mr. 
 Johnson arrived there to take charge on Nov. i, 1723, he found 
 seventy-nine communicants and a house of worship in progress 
 of construction. The Churchmen of Stratford gave what they 
 could for building the church, to which was added liberal con- 
 tributions of several pious and generous gentlemen of the 
 neighboring provinces, and something from travellers who 
 passed through the town. Mr. Pigott's labors in addition to 
 Stratford, Fairfield, Ripton and Newtown, had been extended 
 to Norwalk, North Haven and perhaps other places, and this 
 so disturbed Deputy Gov. Nathan Gold of Norwalk, that he 
 proposed to the General Court a law to prohibit Mr. Pigott 
 practicing the function of a minister in any place in the Colony 
 other than Stratford. But no such law could be passed. Dr. 
 Johnson under date of Jan. 18, 1723-4 writes that the Church- 
 men are chiefly in six or seven towns and "yet there is not one 
 Clergyman of the Church of England besides myself in this 
 whole Colony." He was obliged to ride about to other towns, 
 (some ten, some twenty miles off,) " where there is as much 
 need of a minister as at Stratford. ... A considerable 
 number of young men, five or six, I am sure of would be 
 ordained, but for want of Episcopal ordination decline the 
 ministry and go into secular business." About a year later 
 Dr. Johnson refers to a young man of Fairfield, (Mr. Henry 
 Caner, grad. Yale 1724,) whom the Doctor was preparing for 
 the service of the Church. This is the first person studying 
 for the ministry of the Church in Connecticut of whom we have 
 any account. He was probably brought up in the Church, as 
 he was born in England, about 1703. In 1725, Dr. Johnson 
 writes " Sundry of the young candidates for the ministry repair 
 
IN CONNECTICUT. 49 
 
 to me frequently for books and conversations upon religious 
 subjects. People are poor, (many of them,) and thirst after 
 Prayer Books, Catechisms, &c. but these books are not to be 
 had in this country even if they had money to purchase them." 
 
 The church at Stratford, the first Episcopal church in Con- 
 necticut, was so far finished as to be opened for Services on 
 Christmas day, 1724; the second church was opened at Fair- 
 field, in the fall of 1725, and the third church was opened at 
 New London on Dec. 9, 1730. 
 
 Gov. Talcott wrote to the Bishop of London under date Dec. 
 I, 1725, that " there is but one Church of England minister in 
 this Colony and the Church with him have the same protection 
 a's the rest of our Churches and are under no constraint to the 
 support of any other minister." He refers to " some few 
 persons " in other towns " who have declared themselves to be 
 of the Church of England ; and some of them that live 30 or 
 40 miles from where the Church of England's minister lives " 
 have made some objection to compulsory minister's support. 
 It may be true that the Churchmen of Stratford were not under 
 " constraint to contribute to the support of any other minister," 
 but if so, it was through the leniency of those in authority, as 
 before May, 1727, the law, if enforced, would have compelled 
 them to do so. 
 
 Mr. Johnson writes to the Bishop of London, Sept. 26, 1726, 
 as follows : " I cannot but think it very hard, that that Church 
 of which our most gracious King is the nursing father, should 
 not, in any part of his Majesty's domains, be at least upon a 
 level with the Dissenters and free from any oppression from 
 them." 
 
 " As soon as any stranger, though an Englishman, comes 
 into any town, he is according to their laws, immediately 
 warned to go out, which they always do if he is a Churchman, 
 and it is in the breast of the selectmen of the town whether 
 they will accept of any bondsman for him. Neither can he 
 purchase any lands without their leave, and unless they see 
 cause to allow him to stay, they can, by their laws, whip him 
 out of town, if he otherwise refuse to depart. By this means 
 several professors of our Church, for no other crime but their 
 profession, have been prevented from settling here." 
 
50 THE CHURCH 
 
 In January, 1726-7 Mr. Johnson writes that he has been to 
 Fairfield " to visit a considerable number of my people in prison 
 for their rates to the dissenting minister. ... I wish your 
 Lordship, or some of your sacred character, could have been by 
 to behold the contempt and indignity which our holy religion 
 here suffers among an ungrateful people." '' Unless we can 
 have relief and be delivered from this unreasonable treatment, 
 I fear I must give up the cause, and our Church must sink and 
 come to nothing." And yet these people were legally put in 
 prison and could not reasonably have expected any other treat- 
 ment as long as the law remained as it then was. Referring 
 to Church and State in Old England and in New England, one 
 writer says " The real difference was, that in Old England the 
 Church was subordinate to the State ; but in New England the 
 State was subordinate to the Church." 
 
 " This mode of government answered a tolerable purpose so 
 long as the community continued Christian, and so long as the 
 people were united in sentiment," and we may add, in religion. 
 Such unity had been the case for nearly one hundred years, but 
 it no longer existed. The Baptists came to Groton in 1704 and 
 organized a Church in 1705, although it was about twenty-five 
 years before a second Church was organized. The Quakers 
 of New York state had also crossed our borders, and the Con- 
 gregationalists had split up into two factions, those adopting 
 the Saybrook Platform of 1708, and the dissenters therefrom, 
 known as Separatists. These with the Presbyterians and 
 Churchmen made six different religious denominations then 
 in the Colony, besides the Rogerenes of New London. These 
 new conditions made the old law for the minister's support both 
 unreasonable and unjust. The toleration acts of 1665, 1669, 
 and 1708, in terms complied with the law of England by extend- 
 ing freedom of worship to persons of all denominations, but 
 the laws in general were so framed that those who elected to 
 worship in any other than the Congregational way were sub- 
 jected to various annoyances and made to pay for it so dearly 
 as to discourage all other worship, as far as it could be dis- 
 couraged without actual prohibition. Mr. Johnson considered 
 the law of the Colony for the minister's support to be contrary 
 to the indulgence granted the Colony "by their charter, which 
 
IN CONNECTICUT. , 5 1 
 
 forbade them to do anything contrary to the laws of England." 
 The toleration act of 1708 expressly provided that dissenting 
 worshippers should not be " excused from paying minister's 
 rates", for the " way " established by law. 
 
 The Church wardens and vestry of Fairfield petitioned the 
 General Court which assembled May 15, 1727, for some act to 
 " excuse us from paying any dissenting minister, or to the 
 building of any dissenting meeting house." Also requesting 
 that the money formerly taken from them by distraint, (as 
 they say " contrary to His Honor, the Governor's advice,") 
 be restored to them again. A law purporting to give Church- 
 men relief from taxes was passed, and it is difficult to conceive 
 how any law for such purpose could have possibly been so 
 framed as to give as little relief. It was the first law to name 
 the Church of England, and the first law granting any relief 
 from taxes to those who were not of the Standing Order. It 
 has been stated that this law was passed at the request of 
 Churchmen, but they never requested this law. It was like 
 asking for bread and receiving a stone. The rights of Epis- 
 copalians under the laws of the Colony have generally been 
 misunderstood, and the importance of this act of 1727 in the 
 history of the Church is so great as to warrant an extended 
 discussion. 
 
 The preamble to the act shows that it was granted " Upon 
 the Prayer of Moses Ward of Fairfield, Church Warden, and 
 the rest of the Church Wardens, Vestry M^n and Brethren, 
 representing themselves under Obligations by the Honorable 
 Society, and Bishop of London, to pay to the Support of the 
 established Church," and that " said Ward appeared, and by 
 his attorney declared to this Assembly, that he should not 
 insist on the return of the money prayed for." 
 
 The law enacted " That all persons who are of the Church of 
 England, and those who are of the Churches established by the 
 laws of this Government, that live in the bounds of any Parish 
 allowed by this Assembly, shall be taxed by the parishioners 
 of the said Parish, by the same rule, and in the same proportion, 
 for the support of the Ministry in such Parish." The condi- 
 tions here imposed are the controlling features of the act. It 
 is imperative that Churchmen shall be taxed to support the 
 
52 THE CHURCH 
 
 ministers of the Standing Order, " by the same rule, and in the 
 same proportion " as all others, and further, the conditions of 
 this act are applicable only to those " that live in the bounds " 
 of the particular Congregational parish where the tax was laid. 
 The omission to notice this condition has been one of the chief 
 causes of misunderstanding the law. 
 
 The law gives no conditions for relief to the tax payer as to 
 taxes for supporting ministers of the Standing Order. The 
 only relief is directly for the Episcopal Minister and is as 
 follows : 
 
 " But if it so happens that there be a Society of the Church 
 of England, where there is a person in Orders according to the 
 Canons of the Church of England, settled and abiding among 
 them, and performing divine service, so near to any person that 
 hath declared himself of the Church of England, that he can 
 conveniently, and doth attend the public Worship there, then the 
 Collectors, having first indifferently levied the Tax, as above- 
 said, shall deliver the Taxes collected of such persons declaring 
 themselves, and attending as aforesaid, unto the Minister of the 
 Church of England, living near unto such persons ; which 
 Minister shall have full power to receive and recover the same, 
 in order to his support in the place assigned to him." 
 
 But before the Episcopal minister could recover the taxes 
 paid by the members of his flock to the Collector of the Stand- 
 ing Order, he must prove that he " is a person in orders accord- 
 ing to the canons of the Church " ; that he resides in the same 
 Congregational parish with those Churchmen whose taxes he 
 demands ; that he has regularly performed Divine Service in 
 that vicinity ; that the persons whose taxes he demands have 
 " declared " themselves to be Churchmen, and that they have 
 regularly attended services at the public worship conducted 
 by this minister. 
 
 The remainder of the act is as follows: 
 
 " But if such proportions of Taxes be not sufificient in any 
 Society of the Church of England to support the incumbent 
 there, then such society may levy and collect of them who 
 profess and attend, as aforesaid, greater Taxes, at their own 
 discretion, for the support of their Minister. 
 
 " And that the parishioners of the Church of England, attend- 
 ing as aforesaid, are hereby excused from paying any Taxes 
 
IN CONNECTICUT. 53 
 
 for building Meeting" Houses for the present established 
 Churches of this Government." 
 
 The provision for further taxing Churchmen for their own 
 support requires no explanation, but the relief from paying 
 meeting-house taxes applies, by reason of the words "attending 
 as aforesaid " only to such Churchmen as have fulfilled the 
 conditions named in the previous portion of the act, and there- 
 fore only those Churchmen who resided in the same Congrega- 
 tional parish that the Episcopal Minister resided in, could 
 properly claim exemption from meeting-house taxes. 
 
 In the spring of 1727 when this act was passed, there were 
 only two Episcopal houses of worship in use within the Colony, 
 one at Stratford and an unfinished one at Fairfield. There was 
 another in the process of building at New London. These 
 three towns had each organized a parish or society ; so also 
 West Haven, Ripton, Ridgefield, Newtown, Norwalk, North 
 Haven, Poquonnuck, (North Groton,) Green's Farms, Green- 
 field, Chestnut Ridge, (Redding,) and Danbury, either had 
 parishes or had laid the foundations for a parish, and yet, to 
 take care of all these fourteen places, there was only one Minis- 
 ter " in Orders according to the Canons of the Church of Eng- 
 land settled and abiding among them ", and Stratford, where the 
 Rev. Samuel Johnson resided, was the only place in the Colony 
 where Churchmen could get any relief under this law. 
 
 Fairfield, however, was soon added to the list by the appoint- 
 ment as missionary of Rev. Henry Caner, who had been study- 
 ing for the ministry for three years last past and had also per- 
 formed good service as catechist and lay reader. He returned 
 in the fall of 1727 from England, where he had been for ordina- 
 tion. His first report to the Society is dated March 15, 1727-8. 
 He says the heavy taxes levied for the support of dissenting 
 ministers renders his people " almost inacapable of carrying on 
 the Church." Under the same date he writes to the Bishop of 
 London that " the Dissenters in this government have lately 
 passed an act to exempt all professors of the Church from pay- 
 ing taxes to support their ministers, yet they take the liberty 
 to determine themselves who may be called Churchmen, and 
 interpret that act to comprehend none that live a mile from the 
 Church minister, but of its revenues likewise, we are entirely 
 
54 'fHE CHURCH 
 
 deprived of the benefit of ; and the favor which they would 
 seem to do us proves, in reaHty, but a shadow." 
 
 Under date of April 2, 1728, Mr, Johnson of Stratford writes 
 to the Bishop of London, that " The Government have pre- 
 tended to make a law in favor of the Church, whereby all 
 that live near our parish churches are exempted from paying 
 taxes to dissenting ministers, and it is of some service to such, 
 but those that live scattering in the country are yet persecuted 
 as bad as ever, and in this law they still call themselves the 
 Established Churches, and treat us as Dissenters." 
 
 Mr. Caner mentions nearness to the Church minister as the 
 controlling condition for exemption from taxes, but in fact, 
 the bounds of the established parish where the Church minister 
 resided was the real limit of exemption, while the words *' near 
 to " in the law relate to the place of worship and not to the 
 abode of the minister. The law itself defines what " near to " 
 means, so that if a person could and did attend worship in any 
 place he was " near to " that place within the meaning of the 
 law. We are at a loss to see on what ground the taxes of the 
 Churchmen of Fairfield who attended Mr. Caner's services 
 there should not have been paid over to Mr. Caner, unless they 
 were assessed before Mr. Caner's return from England. It was 
 certainly the rule to give Episcopalians the benefit of this law 
 in all places where the Episcopal ministers resided, and in most 
 other places Episcopalians legally suffered. The authorities 
 might however have claimed that a general missionary for two 
 or more different places was not a minister " settled and abid- 
 ing " in any particular place according to the intent of the law. 
 That a minister should have several parishes to serve alternately, 
 was foreign to the conceptions of the Standing Order. They 
 might well have raised the question as to who were " declared " 
 Churchmen. The only law bearing on the declarations of dis- 
 senters was the toleration act of 1708, which required those who 
 desired to worship God in a way different from that of the 
 Standing Order, to qualify themselves at the County Court 
 " according to an act made in the first year of the late King 
 William and Queen Mary." We find no record of any such 
 qualification in Hartford County and do not know that any one 
 ever qualified under it except a few Straight Congregational- 
 
IN CONNECTICUT. 55 
 
 ists in New Haven County. The words " hath declared himself 
 of the Church of England " as used in the act of 1727 could 
 be fairly construed as so declaring under the toleration law of 
 1708. We do not know that the law ever was so construed. 
 On May 9, 1728, the Church wardens and vestrymen of Fair- 
 field presented a memorial to the General Assembly saying that 
 the act of 1727 " is not fully understood " and particularly they 
 did not understand " what part of the professors of the Church 
 of England are exempted, all being within the district of the 
 Rev. Mr. Johnson and Mr. Caner's ministry, within the county 
 of Fairfield." They ask for an explanation, and also for a law 
 that taxes be granted " by the book of canons . . . and not 
 by your collectors." No action was taken on this petition, 
 
 A little before April i, 1728, Mr. Johnson preached at New 
 Haven. He says, " Great pains were taken to hinder people 
 from coming to Church and many well wishers to it were over- 
 persuaded not to come ; however, I had near a hundred 
 hearers." After sermon, " some ten of the members of the 
 Church there subscribed one hundred pounds towards the build- 
 ing of a church in that town." 
 
 The act of 1727 encouraged the Quakers to apply for relief 
 from taxes, which was granted at the May session in 1729 and 
 the same favor was extended to the Baptists in October, 1729. 
 We presume the law makers preferred Quakers and Baptists to 
 Episcopalians, for the most objectionable features of the law of 
 1727 were omitted from these acts of 1729, whereby all Quakers 
 and Baptists that attended their respective meetings were 
 wholly exempted from taxes on behalf of the Standing Order. 
 The Straight Congregationalists had no relief whatever from 
 the oppressions of the Standing Order until 1777. 
 
 The Rev. Samuel Seabury, father of Bishop Seabury and the 
 Congregationalist minister at North Groton, (now Ledyard,) 
 declared for Episcopacy, went to England for ordination, and 
 returned as missionary to New London, Dec. 9, 1730. The 
 Rev. John Beach, Presbyterian minister at Newtown, soon 
 followed, and was returned here as missionary for Redding and 
 Newtown in 1734. 
 
 The people of North Groton consoled themselves over the 
 loss of the Rev. Samuel Seabury by securing the services of the 
 
56 THE CHURCH 
 
 Rev. Ebenezer Punderson, and they were so well pleased with 
 him as to say " we looked upon ourselves as favorites of 
 Heaven," but in about two and a half years he "publicly 
 declared himself to be a conformist to the Established Church 
 of England," and they say some " ten or twelve of the people 
 of our Parish and heads of families have signed his paper and 
 contributed money to him to have his expenses " to England 
 paid for him "to be ordained by a bishop." [Ecclesiastical 
 Mss., Vol. 4, Doc. 51.] Mr. Punderson was recommended by 
 the clergy of Connecticut, who said there was " a good prospect 
 that many of his former parish will go with him." He came 
 back in 1734 as missionary for North Groton and parts 
 adjacent. In December, 1733, Mr. Johnson wrote to the Bishop 
 of London that he believed two or three worthy young ministers 
 of this Colony "will in a little time declare for us," and that 
 " two of them especially have hopes that the most of their con- 
 gregation will conform with them." One of these two was Mr. 
 Punderson and the other was Jonathan Arnold, who had suc- 
 ceeded Mr. Johnson at West Haven. In 1734 Mr. Arnold 
 returned from England with the appointment of itinerant mis- 
 sionary of the Colony, and the Standing Order at West Haven, r 
 like the people of North Groton, were grieved at the loss of two 
 successive pastors and part of their congregation. 
 
 The honorable Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in 
 Foreign Plantations of the Realm of England breathed into 
 the Church in Connecticut the breath of life, and by its foster- 
 ing care sustained the Church until it was strong enough to 
 stand the shock of the American Revolution. Each missionary 
 was requested to " keep a constant and regular correspondence " 
 with the Secretary of the Society, besides making semi-annual 
 reports. It is by this correspondence that we have such a com- 
 plete history of the Church. The missionaries were paid from 
 twenty to seventy pounds sterling per annum, and each mis- 
 sionary was allowed a library valued at ten pounds sterling with 
 five pounds worth of tracts. Of the 83 missionaries on the 
 Society's list in New England more than one-fourth were 
 brought up Dissenters. In Connecticut there was a much 
 larger percentage of those who had come over to the Church, 
 Of the first nine missionaries appointed to stations in Connecti- 
 cut, six of them had been dissenting ministers. 
 
IN CONNECTICUT. 57 
 
 The missionaries were instructed " that they take special 
 care to give no offence to the Civil Government, by inter-med- 
 dling in affairs not relating to their own calling and function." 
 
 " That they particularly preach against those vices, which 
 they shall observe to be most predominating in the places of 
 their residence." 
 
 No missionary was appointed to any place without first being 
 petitioned for, and without being recommended by some mis- 
 sionary or other person known to the Society. Even then no 
 missionary was sent until the Society knew " whether those 
 places are able and willing to contribute towards the mainten- 
 ance of a missionary," and those places which were most willing 
 to contribute were always supplied first. Ripton and Newtown 
 in 1722 both asked for a missionary and referred to certain 
 lands for Church support, but did not state specifically how 
 much they could do. Two years later they were informed that 
 the " Society are inclined to send them a Missionary, but write 
 first to know what the value of the land is . . . and what 
 they will contribute further annually ? " 
 
 The people soon learned that it was necessary to offer the 
 Society something substantial towards supporting a missionary 
 before they could have one, and even then only a few mission- 
 aries were to be had. 
 
 There was at Hebron in 1736 " a numerous congregation 
 who attended the services of the Common Prayers with great 
 seriousness " when Missionary Seabury of New London, thirty 
 miles away, came to visit them. They could not get a mis- 
 sionary and so desired Mr. Seabury to " administer to them 
 four times a year until one could be sent." 
 
 In 1740 the " Church newly planted " at Wallingford was 
 served only once a quarter by a minister and every Lord's day 
 besides they were served by a lay reader. They knew that Mr. 
 Morris could not come to them oftener, but, say they, "we 
 hope God in his providence, will so order it that we may at last 
 be oftener attended." Mr. Morris writes that upon Mr. Arnold 
 leaving, the people " seemed to despair of having another to 
 succeed him." ..." Should I give an account of the 
 geography of my mission you would find it large enough for a 
 Diocese." 
 
58 THE CHURCH 
 
 In 1741, Mr. Morris visited Simsbury, (Bloomfield,) where 
 " they are in hopes of having a minister at last, and have accord- 
 ingly prepared some timber to build a church." He arranged 
 with the other missionaries to assist him so that Simsbury might 
 be served " eight times a year." He agreed to attend Walling- 
 ford three times a year, " which they seem satisfied with, for 
 they know it is as much as I can do." 
 
 In October, 1743, Mr. Beach speaks of attending about 
 twenty families at New Milford and New Fairfield, where he 
 goes several times a year " but seldom on the Lord's day." 
 They frequently go fifteen miles to attend church at Newtown. 
 
 In April, 1744, the Church wardens of Simsbury write to 
 the Society that they have "nothing so much to object against 
 as the want of a settled minister." Mr. Punderson of North 
 Groton writes, " I am at present the only missionary in this half 
 of the government and part of Rhode Island," and urges the 
 Society to fill the vacancy at New London occasioned by the 
 transfer of Mr. Seabury to Long Island. Other removals 
 occurred, so that in 1747 Dr. Johnson says, "I am now alone 
 here on the sea coast, without one person in orders besides 
 myself for more than a hundred miles." The Church wardens 
 of Litchfield asked for a missionary in 1747, and say they are 
 remote from all the missionaries, except the Rev. Mr. Gibbs, 
 twenty-seven miles away, and Rev. Mr. Beach, between thirty- 
 five and forty miles away. 
 
 In 1756, the people of Norwich were desirous of having a 
 missionary, and before they had one the Mohegan Indians 
 petitioned the Society to have this missionary give them a share 
 of his time, "that we may be taught to go to that good place 
 when we die, as well as the white man." They would pay some- 
 thing but they could not pay much save a few oysters, fish, etc. 
 In 1764 the Rev. Mr. Viets, missionary at Bloomfield, was 
 thirty-five miles from any other Episcopal minister. 
 
 In 1768, the Church wardens of Guilford tell a long story 
 about having tried in vain, since 1744, to have a minister settled 
 among them, but could get nothing but transient service, 
 although some came and staid long enough to greatly encourage 
 them, and left soon enough to grievously disappoint them. 
 They conclude as follows : — " We have labored under the 
 
IN CONNECTICUT. 59 
 
 greatest discouragements for upwards of twenty-three years 
 and built a church, purchased a Glebe and " obtained everything 
 that we have so " long struggled for except the Society's patron- 
 age." We " are stripped of our minister and left to mourn 
 our loss, and to be the derision and scoff of the dissenters." 
 They asked to have Mr. Tyler, who was going home for orders, 
 sent to them. But still again they were disappointed, for Mr. 
 Tyler came back as missionary to Norwich and adjoining parts. 
 He opened the church at Pomfret, (Brooklyn,) April 12, 1771, 
 the last church built in the Colony, and which is now, (1906,) 
 standing. [Mention is made of this old church by the Rev. 
 George Israel Browne, with illustrations, in the Conn. Magazine, 
 Vol. X, p. 69, etc.] It was built by Mr. Godfrey Malbone, an 
 ardent Churchman, who for years had without murmur paid 
 one-eighth of all the taxes in the parish. When he began, in 
 1769, to build the church, there were but two Churchmen that 
 he knew of besides himself. The Standing Order decided to 
 build a new meeting-house, which Mr. Malbone objected to as 
 unnecessary, but he was told that they would build it and compel 
 him to pay for it. His lawyer, a Churchman, advised him that 
 as the laws stood he could not help himself, unless the Episco- 
 palians had a church and minister of their own.. Consequently 
 Mr. Malbone decided to have both a church and a missionary. 
 In October, 1770, this Church was legalized by the General 
 Assembly. With a little outside aid the building was ready, 
 as before stated, in 1771. About twenty heads of families, 
 brought up in the Dissenting way, joined with them before the 
 church was completed, and more joined later, for there was not 
 another church nearer than Norwich, twenty-two miles away. 
 But the great difficulty which Mr. Malbone encountered was 
 to get a missionary. He applied for one in 1769 and engaged to 
 pay one hundred pounds annually. Without a minister settled 
 there the people were bound by law to pay for the meeting- 
 house and minister's rate of the Standing Order. Failing to 
 have a missionary sent to him by the Society, he employed the 
 Rev. Mr. Moseley, a chaplain in the British Navy, but still they 
 were not freed from taxes as the Dissenters would not admit 
 that Mr. Moseley was " in orders in accordance with the Canons 
 of the Church." In 1772 Mr. Moseley withdrew in favor of 
 
6o THE CHURCH 
 
 the Rev. Daniel Fogg, a missionary of the S. P. G., and then the 
 Churchmen in the parish of Brooklyn were relieved from 
 further taxes to the Standing Order. 
 
 There never were in the Colony half as many missionaries as 
 were being earnestly begged for, and all the while that this cry 
 for more ministers was heard throughout the land, the Dis- 
 senters were complaining about the S. P. G. sending ministers 
 where they were not wanted. Dr. Blake's " Separates " of New 
 England says that the S. P. G. was a society for aiding the 
 Church of England in America and for planting " its Churches 
 where the ground was abundantly occupied and supplied with 
 the ministrations of the Gospel, though not after the Episcopal 
 order." The great Anti-Episcopal Convention, 1766 to 1775, 
 complained of the S. P. G. for paying considerabk salaries to 
 missionaries where the Convention thought they were not 
 wanted. There was no minister of any denomination at Red- 
 ding, when Mr. Henry Caner first ministered to the people 
 there. At the present day it is hard to realize how much the 
 S. P. G. did for the Church in Connecticut. The Rev. John 
 Beach in 1743 said: " I bless God for the pious care and charity 
 of the venerable Society . . . and had it not been for that, 
 we have reason to think there would not have been at this day 
 as much as one congregation in this Colony worshiping God 
 according to the Church of England." 
 
 The missionaries frequently represented to the Society the 
 great want of schools for the instruction of children in the 
 principles of religion and convenient learning. The Society 
 from the first paid salaries to several catechists and school 
 masters, particularly in tlie Provinces of New York and Massa- 
 chusetts. 
 
 The school masters were to instruct the children in reading, 
 writing and arithmetic, also in the Catechism, reading the Holy 
 Scripture and in the use of the Prayer Book. They were 
 required to frequently consult and advise with the ministers ; 
 to take all their scholars regularly to Church, and to teach them 
 to join in the worship. 
 
 They were to teach the children special morning and evening 
 prayers for use in school, and also for private use at home; 
 a short prayer for every child to use when they first come into 
 
IN CONNECTICUT. 6l 
 
 their seats at church and before they leave their seats. ' Also 
 " A Grace before " and " after Meat." 
 
 The first mention found of a catechist in Connecticut is Nov. 
 6, 1722, when the Rev. Mr. Pigott asks to have a French gentle- 
 man of Fairfield appointed as catechist. He refers to Dr. 
 James Laborie, a Hugenot who was ordained at Zurich, Oct. 
 30, 1688. removed to England, and was licensed by the Bishop 
 of London for teaching grammar and catechising in the parish 
 of Stepney. He officiated in several French churches of 
 London for nine or ten years and in 1698 came to America and 
 was settled in the ministry at " New Oxford", Mass., with a 
 commission from Bishop Compton to instruct the Indians there, 
 which he did with great success. He removed to New York 
 and had charge of the French Church there from Oct. 15, 
 1704, to Aug. 25, 1706. He then engaged in the practice of 
 medicine and removed to Stratford, Conn, about 1709. He was 
 Surgeon for the Colony at Wood Creek, 1709, and in the 
 expedition to Port Royal and Nova Scotia, 17 10, being also 
 Chaplain on the Brigantine " Mary." He removed to Fair- 
 field about 1 716. Here, without any salary, he continued his 
 labors and began to teach both Whites and Indians. He says 
 he was interrupted by Lieut. Gov. Nathan Gold, " a mortal 
 enemy to the Church and violently compelled to surcease my 
 endeavors " on the ground that " my commission extended no 
 farther than Boston Colony." After the arrival of missionary 
 Pigott in 1722, he worked with him and instructed the people 
 at his own house on the Lord's Day when Mr. Pigott could not 
 be present. On Jan. 13, 1723-4, the latter writes that " Dr. 
 Laborie's industry there, (Fairfield,) takes off the present 
 necessity of a missionary for that town. He is an excellent 
 preacher, but Episcopacy cuts off his practice in physic." 
 Although he became a Churchman, he does not appear to have 
 ever received Episcopal ordination. His name is not found in 
 the annual reports of the S. P. G. and although called a cate- 
 chist his work was in the nature of a missionary. Sometimes 
 lay readers who were preparing for the ministry were called 
 catechists when not in the employ of the S. P. G. This was 
 the case with Mr. Ebenezer Thompson of Simsbury, 1742. The 
 only other record we have of a catechist is that Dr. Johnson 
 
62 THE CHURCH 
 
 was paid ten pounds a year for a catechist at Stratford, from 
 1746 to 1755, inclusive. 
 
 Rev. Samuel Johnson of Stratford writes, June 23, 1724, to 
 the Bishop of London " that this town, and indeed the whole 
 colony, is destitute of any Episcopal school, by which means 
 our youth are trained up in prejudice against the established 
 Church, and since your Lordship hath expressed so pious a care 
 as to enquire concerning the state of schools, I have been 
 encouraged to recommend this honest gentleman, the bearer 
 hereof, Mr. Thomas Salmon, to your Lordship and the honor- 
 able Society ; he is one of our Church wardens and is well quali- 
 fied for an English school master, and hath kept the school for 
 several years in this town to the universal satisfaction of both 
 the Church people and Dissenters." It does not appear that 
 he was ever appointed. 
 
 Mr, Johnson writes to the Secretary, Sept, 16, 1726, that Mr. 
 Henry Caner of Fairfield " designs about two years hence to 
 wait upon the honorable Society for orders and a mission, " 
 meanwhile the people would be very thankful if the Society 
 would " grant him a small encouragement for the pains he takes 
 in instructing that people and their children in the principles of 
 religion as catechist." Instead of waiting two years, Mr. Caner 
 was ordained and returned as missionary at Fairfield within 
 a year. Mr. Johnson writes Sept. 20, 1727, that he " should be 
 very glad that the same salary which was allowed to him, (Mr. 
 Caner,) as school master at Fairfield, might be allowed for a 
 school in this town, (Stratford,) where there is great need of 
 one, and it might be of good service, not only for forming the 
 minds of children to a sense of religion, but likewise for a 
 resort for such young gentlemen, successively, as from time 
 to time leave the College here. . . . They might while 
 they keep school, improve themselves in the study of Divinity, 
 till they are qualified for higher business." And so Mr. Caner 
 was paid a school master's salary in remuneration of his ser- 
 vices to the Church at Fairfield until he could be appointed as 
 missionary. His service as schoolmaster was less than one year 
 and hence does not appear in the annual reports of the S. P. G. 
 
 In the same letter, Mr. Johnson says, " The Dissenters have 
 two poor schools in this town, but the Church hath none." 
 
IN CONNECTICUT. 63 
 
 Again, Oct. 23, 1727, he says, in my "last I informed the 
 Society of what service it might be to the interest of religion 
 to have a school here, and that Mr. Bennett (who has for above 
 half a year kept school among the Dissenters here, and been 
 rejected by the greatest number of them upon conformity to 
 our Church,) would be very serviceable and acceptable, . . . 
 We have already raised nigh thirty pounds per annum " and 
 could give a good support to a school which he asks for, as 
 " nothing could so happily contribute to the enlargement of our 
 Church. " 
 
 Mr. Johnson writes, Nov. 20, 1729, that he finds " in the 
 abstract of the proceedings of the Society last year, mention 
 made of a salary for a school at Stratford but have never 
 received any letter or otherwise any intimation from the Society 
 about it, . . . However, I should be very thankful if there 
 was a salary appointed for that purpose, and there is great need 
 of it, yet since we want ministers more of the two, than school 
 masters, I would not desire that the providing for a school 
 should stand in the way of providing missionaries." 
 
 An anonymous letter dated Stratford, Oct. 30, 1727, was sent 
 to the Bishop of London, discouraging the school. It purported 
 to have been written in the interest of Churchmen and claimed 
 that a school would be " a prejudice and a wrong to us, " by 
 disturbing the " friendship between us and the committee of the 
 schools," who now employ " a man of our persuasion in one " 
 of the schools. Mr. Bennett was not appointed, but finally the 
 prayer for a school master at Stratford was granted and Mr. 
 Johnson writes to the Bishop of London, Dec. 10, 1733, thank- 
 ing him for his '* interest with the honourable Society for set- 
 tling a school in this place. " The school at Stratford was prac- 
 tically the first sectarian school for general education ever set 
 up in the Colony, aside from the schools of the Standing Order. 
 All the public schools of the Colony were controlled by 
 ecclesiastical societies of the Standing Order, although other 
 denominations were permitted to vote. Episcopalians could 
 have no vote on school matters without attending the meetings 
 of the Congregational Societies. In the report of the S. P. G. 
 for the year 1733, Mr. Joseph Brown is put down as "School 
 Master " at Stratford with a salary of fifteen pounds per annum, 
 
64 THE CHURCH 
 
 and he is so reported for twenty-one consecutive years. Mr. 
 Brown was one of the vestrymen of Christ Church and sub- 
 scribed thirty pounds for building the church in 1742-3. 
 
 On the first Monday in February, 1733-4, the, Rev. Samuel 
 Johnson, in behalf of the members of the Church of England 
 in Stratford, asked for liberty to erect a " School House on the 
 Common near the southeast corner of Lieut. Joseph Beach'es 
 house lot," and the town voted to grant his request. [Orcutt's 
 Stratford, Vol. i, p. 322.] Probably the house was built and 
 this is where Mr. Brown taught. 
 
 In May, 1728, a law was passed requiring the Treasurer of 
 the Colony to " deliver the sum of forty shillings upon every 
 thousand pounds in the list of the respective towns " to the 
 school committee of the said towns " to be by them distributed to 
 the several parishes or societies in each town for the benefit of 
 their respective schools. " 
 
 In October, 1737, a law was passed permitting certain school 
 funds to be appropriated " to the support of the Gospel minis- 
 try, as by the laws of this Colony established." This of course 
 all went, said Dr. Johnson, to support ministers of the " Presby- 
 terian or Congregational persuasion, (being those that are 
 peculiarly countenanced by the Laws of this Government,) to 
 be divided in proportion to their several lists and this in such 
 manner that we of the Church of England cannot lay claim 
 to any share of them for the support of our Ministers or 
 Schools." 
 
 By reason of these laws, a long memorial, drafted by Dr. 
 Johnson, was presented to the General Court at their May 
 session, 1738, praying " that we may be secured of our propor- 
 tion of those public monies toward the support o£ our Ministers 
 & that our schools also, where we have any peculiar to our- 
 selves, may have their proportional benefit of the said act, as 
 also the 40 shillings on the £1000, which has hitherto been 
 denied to the School of the Church of England at Stratford. " 
 [Ecclesiastical Mss., Vol. 10, Doc. 324.] The objectionable 
 law was repealed in 1740. This memorial gives us positive 
 proof that there was, in 1738, an Episcopal school at Stratford, 
 which was of such a general educational character as to warrant 
 a demand for their share of " the 40 shillings on the iiooo ", 
 given for public schools. 
 
IN CONNECTICUT, 65 
 
 Mr. Richard Caner appears in the annual reports for the 
 years ending February, 1740 and February, 1741, as " School 
 Master at Fairfield." In November, 1739 he reported thirty 
 scholars. In the report for 1742 he was reported as missionary, 
 thus showing that his salary as school master was in remunera- 
 tion for missionary work. In 1742, the Rev. Timothy Allen 
 was conducting a school at New London known as " The Shep- 
 perd's Tent " and which was designed for educating young 
 men to become exhorters, etc., for the so-called New Lights. 
 An act passed in October, 1742, (and said to have been aimed 
 at these "New Lights",) imposed heavy penalties upon any 
 one who should teach, keep, or maintain " any public school 
 whatsoever, " other than as '' established or allowed " by law. 
 This law, (which was enacted for four years only,) was broad 
 enough to have suppressed the Episcopal school at Stratford, but 
 the authorities do not appear to have had any desire to do so. 
 
 The school was finally discontinued at the request of Dr. 
 Johnson, as appears from his letter to the Society dated April 
 14, 175 1, stating " that, as it is now much less charity to provide 
 for a school in this town than heretofore, " and " Mr. Brown 
 tells me he is willing to resign " , he advises the Society to 
 appoint a missionary for Ripton in place of the school master at 
 Stratford. 
 
 Mr. Hutchinson appears in the reports of the S. P. G. as 
 school master at North Groton, (Ledyard,) from 1745 to 1764 
 inclusive. A school master whose name is not given was paid 
 for work among the Narragansett Indians from 1767 to 1777, 
 inclusive. On June 5, 1765, the Rev. Matthew Graves of New 
 London recommends " to the care of the Religious Society " 
 for a school master " Mr. Bennett, the school master among the 
 Mohawks," who designs " to return when the small pox is 
 abated. " The Digest of the Reports of the S. P. G. says that 
 Cornelius Bennett of the Mohawk mission. New York, labored 
 among the Narragansett Indians for a short time. 
 
 On June, 1770, Dr. Johnson writes the Secretary from his 
 old home at Stratford, thanking him for ordering Mr. Somas- 
 ters to be placed at Stratford, and says : " This happily falls in 
 with a design I have entertained of holding a little Academy, 
 or resource for young students of Divinity to prepare them for 
 
66 THE CHURCH 
 
 Holy Orders. Have now four, Marshall, Fingley, Perry and 
 Jones. Marshall will go next fall to Woodbury. This I shall 
 continue while I live with the assistance of Mr. Kneeland." 
 Mr. Somaster's name is not found in the annual reports of the 
 S. P. G. No doubt the Somaster's Library which was trans- 
 ferred from the Church at Stratford to the Episcopal Academy 
 at Cheshire and then back again to Stratford, originally 
 belonged to this teacher. The foregoing account includes all 
 the Episcopal schools in Colonial Connecticut of which we have 
 any record. 
 
 Referring again to the laws of the Colony, a fine of 20 shil- 
 lings was imposed by the law of 1721, on those who should 
 assemble in any public meeting-house without the consent of the 
 minister and congregation. This made it more difficult for the 
 Episcopalians to get permission to use the meeting-houses which 
 they had helped to build. 
 
 The poorer Churches of the Standing Order were also 
 favored by having their county rates remitted to them or by 
 otherwise receiving substantial aid from the Colony. In 1728 
 the county rates were remitted to the parish of Redding, where 
 Mr. Caner had preached when there was " no minister of any 
 denomination whatsoever " there, and this favor was continued 
 for twenty years or more. In October, 1730, the Society of 
 Horse Neck, (Greenwich,) petitioned the General Court for 
 aid, saying that " of our small number not a few have listed 
 themselves under the banner prelatical and also not a few under 
 the banner of yea and nay and how far the leaven may spread we 
 fear more than we are sure of." The county rates collected in 
 the town of Greenwich for the year 1730, (from Episcopalians 
 and others,) were ordered to be paid over to the treasurer of 
 this Congregational parish. 
 
 We have already referred to the withdrawal of two ministers 
 in succession and many of the people from the societies of the 
 Standing Order at North Groton and West Haven, The for- 
 mer asked for aid in 1734 and fifty pounds was granted them. 
 West Haven petitioned for aid in 1735, showing " the broken 
 circumstances of said parish by reason of their ministers one 
 after another declaring themselves to be of the Church of Eng- 
 land principles and carrying from them considerable estate and 
 
IN CONNECTICUT. 67 
 
 inhabitants, whereby they are incapable to maintain the gospel." 
 A committee was appointed to investigate. [Ecclesiastical 
 Mss., Vol. 10, Docs. 51 and 271.] Many other places were 
 granted favors and their memorials asking for aid appear in 
 the archives of the State. They often give the number of 
 inhabitants in their respective parishes with a statement of how 
 many Episcopalians, Baptists or Quakers they had in order to 
 show how the ranks of the Standing Order had been diminished. 
 
 We have before referred to the money appropriated for 
 schools being refused the Episcopal school at Stratford, and to 
 the school funds belonging to the State, (including the Episco- 
 palians,) being devoted to the support of the Gospel ministry 
 for the Standing Order, without giving any portion of it to 
 the Churchmen. The lengthy memoral of 1738, in protest of 
 these practices, is very interesting reading. It gives numerous 
 reasons as to why the Churchmen should receive their "propor- 
 tion in the said public monies ", the first reason being as 
 follows : 
 
 " Because the Doctrines and Principles of the Church of 
 England do professedly and most certainly tend, (at least 
 equally with those of any other persuasion,) not only to fit and 
 prepare men for eternal happiness in the life to come, but also 
 to promote the public good of society in this world, by teaching 
 them to be sober, virtuous and industrious in their callings, 
 serious and devout towards God and just and charitable towards 
 men, and in every respect to be good Christians, kind neighbors, 
 upright magistrates, dutiful subjects and faithful and conscien- 
 tious in every relation and condition of life, and consequently 
 Her professors ought to have the like equitable and favorable 
 treatment with those of any other denomination of Christians." 
 
 It closes with a prayer for equal rights and then says : " In 
 hopes of which, (as in duty bound,) we shall ever pray for the 
 health and happiness of your Honors and all the members of 
 this Assembly and for the peace and prosperity of this Colony." 
 
 The memorial was signed, (so says the document,) " to the 
 number of about 636." [Ecclesiastical Mss., Vol. 10, 324.] 
 We thus have the autographs of nearly all the Episcopalians 
 over 16 years of age residing in the Colony in 1738. Dr. 
 Johnson says more names could have been added if there had 
 
68 THE CHURCH 
 
 been time. The names are arranged as from Greenwich and 
 Stamford under Rev. Mr. Wetmore ; of Groton under Rev. 
 Mr. Punderson ; of New London under Rev. Mr. Seabury ; of 
 Hebron under Rev. Mr. Seabury ; under Rev. Mr. Arnold ; 
 under Rev. Mr. Beach ; under Rev. Mr. Johnson of Stratford ; 
 and under Rev. Mr. Caner at Norwalk and Fairfield. Nothing- 
 was granted. 
 
 The law as to attendance upon the worship of the Standing 
 Order was of course applicable to Churchmen who did not 
 attend a service of their own, but we do not think that it was 
 generally enforced against them. Mr. Morris, in 1740, writes 
 that two warrants were issued before his time " to take up two 
 men in Waterbury for not attending their meetings, and when 
 one of them offered to give his reasons why he could not go to 
 their extempore prayers he was silenced and ordered to prison 
 or pay his fine." Under the law the accused could be fined 
 unless he should " make it appear that he did attend . . . 
 or was necessarily detained therefrom." Mr, Beach writes, in 
 1743, that the people of New Fairfield when they had no 
 preaching on the Lord's day meet together " and one of their 
 number reads some part of the Common Prayer and a sermon " 
 and that they were " lately prosecuted and fined . . . for 
 their meeting to worship God according to the Common 
 Prayer." 
 
 " The case of these people is very hard, if on the Lord's day 
 they continue at home, they must be punished ; if they meet 
 to worship God according to the Church of England, in the best 
 manner they can, their mulct is still greater, and if they go 
 to Independent meeting they must hear the Church vilified. " 
 
 They could have been lawfully prosecuted for staying at 
 home, or for leaving home except to worship " in some Con- 
 gregation by law allowed " , or in " some place by law allowed 
 for that end." After 1727, every Church of England congrega- 
 tion and place of worship was " by law allowed " , but by a 
 narrow construction of the law, a private house with service 
 by a lay reader, might have been held not to be a place or con- 
 gregation allowed by law, inasmuch as the law of 1727 legalized 
 the societies of the Church of England only " where there is a 
 person in orders according to the canons "of that Church 
 
IN CONNECTICUT. 69 
 
 " settled and abiding among them." There was no such minis- 
 ter at New Fairfield and hence the laws which were passed in 
 1 72 1, to prevent noisy itinerant persons, who had no authority 
 whatever to preach, from preaching in private houses and on 
 the streets, were made to do duty against this devout band who 
 from necessity were without a minister. This is the only in- 
 stance we have found of prosecuting those who attended Prayer 
 Book service by a lay reader, and perhaps this circumstance was 
 the cause of adding the proviso to these laws in 1750: " That 
 this act shall not be taken or construed to hinder the meeting 
 of such Persons upon any Religious Occasion. " 
 
 The law of 1740 forbade " any person not a settled and 
 ordained minister " from holding services in any parish without 
 being expressly invited by the minister of the parish, and in 
 1767 the Rev. Mr. Boardman of Middle Haddam unsuccess- 
 fully tried to use this law to keep Episcopal ministers out of 
 his parish. 
 
 The most serious grievance the Churchmen had was the 
 failure of the law of 1727, or any other law, to give relief from 
 taxes for the Standing Order. Such relief was asked continu- 
 ously from 1727 until 1775. 
 
 The first relief from ecclesiastical taxes of the Standing 
 Order came from New London in 1726, when the rates of all 
 other denominations in that town were paid by voluntary con- 
 tributions. This was continued for three years and in Octo- 
 ber, 1729 the selectmen of New London petitioned the General 
 Court for permission to leave out of " the minister's rate " all 
 those who are of the Church of England, the First and Seventh- 
 day Baptists, and some " which we call Quakers." The peti- 
 tion was granted in the Lower House provided that persons 
 so exempted cannot vote in " Society Meetings, " but it was 
 dissented from in the Upper House. 
 
 As to relief under the laws of 1727, Missionary Punderson 
 writes in 1750, that the law is " expressed in such limited and 
 ambiguous terms as to be the occasion of many disputes and 
 difficulties to the messengers of peace to whose care they 
 belong." There is no doubt but that many Episcopalians were 
 released from taxes that could not have been released had the 
 law been strictly and rigidly enforced. It was the general rule 
 
70 THE CHURCH 
 
 that collectors accepted certificates of the missionaries as to the 
 payment of rates, the same as if they had themselves collected 
 them and paid them over to the missionary, provided the amount 
 so paid was equal to the tax assessed and that no question other 
 than such payment was involved. After 1728, there was no 
 trouble within those parishes where the missionaries resided. 
 No matter how long a society had been organized, nor how 
 large a parish they had, if no missionary abided among them 
 they were by law compelled to pay rates to the Standing Order, 
 while under the law these rates were always assessed even when 
 the Standing Order had no minister to support. Under date 
 of March 30, 1750, Dr. Johnson writes to the Secretary that 
 " the people must be forced to pay the dissenters till they have 
 ministers of their own in orders." That the law was so con- 
 strued has also been stated by missionaries Gibbs, Graves, Pun- 
 derson and others, some of whom had been advised by lawyers 
 who were Churchmen. The minister's rates for the Standing 
 Order that was paid over about 1763 to Missionary Winslow 
 at Stratford amounted to thirty pounds sterling per annum. 
 Missionaries Gibbs, Wetmore and others sued collectors of the 
 Standing Order for the rates of their parishioners outside of 
 the parish where the missionary resided, and in each case were 
 defeated. Mr. Gibbs refused to pay the cost and was put in 
 jail according to law, and so barbarously treated by the officer 
 who took him to Hartford, that he was incapacitated for life. 
 The cases of Episcopalians put in jail for non-payment of eccle- 
 siastical taxes of the Standing Order are too numerous to men- 
 tion. The people of Wallingford about 1740, or before, peti- 
 tioned for redress to the Governor, who had proved a strong 
 opponent to them, and they say that " when the other party hath 
 applied to him for advice how to proceed against us, he hath 
 lately given his sentence to enlarge the gaol and fill it with 
 them" (that is, fill it with Churchmen). They even followed 
 a Churchman for ecclesiastical taxes after he was dead. The 
 Society of North Guilford laid taxes for building the meeting- 
 house in 1748 and for minister's support for four years against 
 Samuel Fowler " a Professor of ye Church of England " , but 
 failed to collect the same in his lifetime. They sued his execu- 
 tors in the New Haven County Court and it was decided that 
 
IN CONNECTICUT. 7 1 
 
 action did not lye against them. A special act was passed by 
 the General Assembly in 1753 to enable these taxes to be col- 
 lected from the estate. [Colonial Records, Vol. X, p. 182.] 
 
 In 1738, forty-one Churchmen of Greenwich and Stamford 
 who attended worship in the borders of New York petitioned 
 for exemption and were refused, although such exemption was 
 granted to Connecticut Quakers who worshipped in the borders 
 of New York. In 1740, Samuel Johnson, J. Wetmore, Henry 
 Caner, John Beach, Jon. Arnold, Samuel Seabury and Ebenezer 
 Punderson, ministers of the Church of England, renewed their 
 petition for relief. In 1742, twenty-seven Churchmen of Sims- 
 bury petitioned for exemption and organization. In 1743, 
 forty-five Churchmen of Simsbury renewed this petition. In 
 1744, thirty-eight Churchmen of Waterbury petitioned for 
 relief. In 1745, thirty-three Churchmen of Redding petitioned 
 for relief. In 1748, thirty-eight Churchmen of Redding 
 renewed their petition, reciting the favor that the General Court 
 had extended to the Presbyterians of Redding for twenty years, 
 and " disclaiming any suspicion that the Assembly will be 
 partial or their charity confined to Christians of one denomina- 
 tion to the exclusion of all others. Nor can we suppose that 
 their wisdom will account our worshiping God in the manner 
 established in our mother country such a crime as to forfeit and 
 render us unworthy of enjoying for a short season that charity 
 which our fellow parishioners have ever and do enjoy." Nega- 
 tived in both houses. [Ecclesiastical Mss., Vol. 10, Docs. 334, 
 336, 337, 339, 340 and 341.] Other petitions of a similar 
 character failed to receive any favor. 
 
 The missionaries and others complain that " it is found by 
 repeated experiments, that a poor Churchman can expect no 
 redress in any court here ; " that, " the Independents by force 
 and under pretence of authority, have carried away our estates, 
 to support their teachers, to build their meeting houses and to 
 procure their parsonages, " that " The Church people, your 
 Lordship's sons, are imprisoned, arrested and non-suited with 
 prodigious cost, contrary to the laws of God and man ; . . . 
 a cruel injustice and usurpation imposed on no other society;" 
 that they are "totally discouraged and discredited" but "had 
 our religion the same privileges throughout this Colony, that 
 
72 THE CHURCH 
 
 the Baptists have, we would flourish and increase like the lily 
 of the valley and the cedars of Lebanon. " Complaints of this 
 character, it is said, arrived in London almost with every ship. 
 The complaints about unfair decisions and biased judges came 
 largely through a belief that the law of 1727 was for the relief 
 of Churchmen, whereby relief was expected in cases for which 
 the law gave no relief. As the Colony laws were framed, we 
 do not know of a decision as to taxes that was improperly 
 lendered against Churchmen. Missionary Punderson had 
 grievances, but was advised by a lawyer who was a Churchman 
 that he had no case. However unjust the law may seem to 
 have been, its enforcement did not show that antagonism to 
 Episcopacy that was shown at Stratford in the early days of the 
 Church. Missionary Caner says, in 1733, that "the spirit and 
 temper of the people formerly so hot against us very much 
 abates and that they begin to treat us in a much more friendly 
 manner than they were wont." Missionary Seabury says, in 
 ^735> that "the dissenting party are very civil and obliging to 
 me." Missionary Punderson says, in 1739, that the dissenting 
 brethren, many of them, " are brought to have a good opinion " 
 of the Church " and occasionally attend our worship." Mis- 
 sionary Johnson says, in 1746, that " there seems a very grow- 
 ing disposition towards the Church in the town of New Haven 
 as well as the College." In 1746 there was no dissenting minis- 
 ter at Stamford and Missionary Dibblee was given the use of 
 the meeting-house, where the people of all sorts generally 
 attended when he preached there. Missionary Hubbard, in 
 1772, says : " I have the happiness to see the greatest unanimity' 
 reigning amongst us and the denominations with whom we 
 live." Missionary Beach says : " The rising generation of the 
 Independents seem to be entirely free from every pique and 
 prejudice against the Church." 
 
 In 1752, the law makers began to look upon Episcopalians 
 with more, favor when special privileges were granted to the 
 Churchmen of Newtown. The parishioners of Trinity Church. 
 Fairfield in 1761, those of St. John's Church, New Milford, 
 and of the Church in Brooklyn in 1770, were incorporated in 
 Church estate by acts of the General Court, with substantially 
 the same rights as Churches of the Standing Order. No other 
 
IN CONNECTICUT. 73 
 
 favors were granted until 1784, when it was enacted that upon 
 filing a proper certificate and attending church, all Churchmen 
 could be relieved from paying Congregational taxes. Before 
 this more than half of all the Churchmen in the Colony were 
 compelled to pay double taxes. 
 
 One of the most unreasonable accusations ever made against 
 the Churchmen of the Colony was that imputing to them the 
 insincerity of being Churchmen for the sake of smaller taxes. 
 And strange to say, these charges sometimes came from 
 Churchmen, instead of their enemies. 
 
 The first record found of such a charge is in the letter of 
 missionary Philips to the Society, dated Sept. 9, 1713, excusing 
 himself for leaving Stratford so abruptly, and in which he says 
 that he found " the greatest part of those who pretended to be 
 of the Church way were only so to screen themselves from 
 taxes imposed on them by Dissenters." On Dec. i, 1725, Gov. 
 Talcott of Connecticut wrote to the Bishop of London, saying 
 that there are some few persons, outside of Stratford " who 
 cannot well be judged to act from any other motive than to 
 appear singular, or to be freed from a small tax, and hence 
 have declared themselves to be of the Church of England." 
 Prior to 1727, the particular denomination of Christians a 
 person belonged to, or did not belong to, made no difference 
 whatever as to the amount of his taxes to the Standing Order, 
 and hence it is utterly inconceivable how these charges could 
 have then been made. After the law of 1727 which purported 
 to grant relief, the charge does not seem so strange, but was 
 still unreasonable. It was often made by people who ought 
 to have known better, as for example the Rev. Elizur Good- 
 rich of Durham, who in his report on Connecticut to the Anti- 
 Episcopal Convention in the year 1774, says of Episcopalians 
 that their ministers " as may be feared sometimes beguile them 
 with promises of discharging their rates, if they become 
 Churchmen." It is true that some men will do mean things in 
 order to lessen their taxes, but when there is no possible chance 
 for one to accomplish that object there is no reason for imput- 
 ing to them any such motive. All persons throughout the 
 Colony were assessed alike without regard to what denomina- 
 tion they belonged. Episcopalians, under the law, were com- 
 
74 THE CHURCH 
 
 pelled to pay this assessment and no collector would cancel their 
 rate until he knew that it had been paid in full. The amount 
 was the same whether the rate went to the Congregational or 
 Episcopal minister, so that it was utterly impossible for any one 
 to reduce the amount of their ecclesiastical taxes by being a 
 Churchman, even when they had the full benefit of exemption 
 from taxes to the Standing Order. But only a few Churchmen 
 could have this exemption, so that most of them paid double 
 rates for the privilege of being Churchmen, one rate to the 
 Church and one rate to the Standing Order. The Standing 
 Order was large and strong, and received substantial aid from 
 the Government, while the Church was small and weak and 
 received aid from a charitable society that helped only those 
 who helped themselves. Consequently the demands of the 
 Church on its members were greater than those of the Standing 
 Order even when Church rates only were paid, so that it cost 
 more to belong to the Church than it did to be a sinner, or 
 belong to the Standing Order. The Rev. John Beach of New- 
 town and Redding writes to the Society in 1746 that "it is very 
 certain that our people generally expend more by far for the 
 support of religion than their neighbors of the dissenting per- 
 suasion. " He also certifies to this before the General Court in 
 1748, as to the members of the Church at Redding and also that 
 he holds " in the utmost indignation " any " insincerity in mat- 
 ters of religion in order to save purses. " The taxes raised by 
 the Standing Order from non-professors and from professors 
 of all denominations, together with other benefits from the 
 Government, made the religion of that order, in a financial 
 sense, the cheapest religion in the Colony and consequently it 
 was the only religion of which a person's motive for adoption 
 could be reasonably imputed to a desire to save purses. 
 
 The law under which the Dissenting minister of Middle 
 Haddam attempted to keep the Episcopal ministers out of his 
 parish was made in 1742 to suppress the great number of 
 vagrant preachers and sundry illiterate persons that appeared 
 after the coming of Whitefield, and some of which had no 
 authority whatever as preachers. Missionary Punderson of 
 New London wrote in December, 1741, that "there are at least 
 twenty or thirty of these lay holders-forth within ten miles of 
 
IN CONNECTICUT. 75 
 
 my house, who hold their meetings every night except Satur- 
 day. " Even Whitefield's preaching was not pleasant to many, 
 as is shown by a letter of six members of the Church in Ply- 
 mouth, 1744, who were formerly Dissenters, but who say they 
 " fled to the Church of England " after reading the Prayer 
 Book and hearing Whitefield's " extemporaneous jargon. " 
 Several missionaries write in substance that the wild enthusiasm 
 drove many Dissenters into the Church. 
 
 In 1742, there were fourteen churches built and building, and 
 seven clergymen. When Dr. Johnson came to Stratford there 
 " were not one hundred adult persons of the Church in this 
 whole Colony, whereas now (1742,) there are considerably 
 more than two thousand, and at least five or six thousand young 
 and old. " At the commencement at New Haven in 1748, 
 " there were nine of our Clergy together " there and " among 
 the candidates for their degrees there were no less than ten 
 belonging to our Church." 
 
 At the beginning of 1756 there were twelve missionaries of 
 the S. P. G. in the Colony. In 1760, Dr. Johnson says there 
 were thirty Churches in the Colony, though but fourteen minis- 
 ters. President Stiles' sermon on Christian Union of the same 
 date gives twenty-five parishes and fourteen ministers. In 
 1761, the Rev. Mr. Beach says that in twenty-nine years the 
 Church " is increased more than from one to ten, and what is of 
 much greater importance, their conduct for the most part, is a 
 credit to their profession " and is also an advantage to the 
 " Independents, for they who live near to the Church of Eng- 
 land acquire juster notions of religion and become more regular 
 in their worship. " In 1766, Mr. Viets said that *' the propor- 
 tion of Church people to the Dissenters in Simsbury is nearly as 
 one to three." In 1768, he writes that " there are 52 Congre- 
 gational ministers in this County, viz., Hartford, (which then 
 included Middletown, the Haddams, Chatham, Colchester, Bol- 
 ton, Somers, Tolland, Willington, Hebron and Stafford). In 
 all the four New England Colonies there are 586 Congrega- 
 tional ministers, 38 of the Church Clergy, 39 Anabaptists, 10 
 Presbyterians, 30 Quaker assemblies and about 50 congrega- 
 tions of those called Separatists, somewhat resembling the old 
 Independents. " 
 
76 THE CHURCH 
 
 In 1769, Mr. Beach says: "There are in these two parishes, 
 (Newtown and Redding,) about 2400 souls of whom a Httle 
 more than half profess the Church of England. Here are 
 about 50 negros most of whom have been baptized. Here are 
 no heathens or infidels, no Papists or Deists. " Of Newtown, 
 he says : " It is of some satisfaction to me to observe that in 
 this town of late in our elections, the Church people make the 
 major vote, which is the first instance of this kind in the 
 Colony, if not in all New England. " 
 
 In the annual report of the S. P. G. for 1777, the missionaries 
 of Connecticut were Ebenezer Kneeland, Stratford and Mil- 
 ford ; Christopher Newton, Ripton and North Stratford ; John 
 Sayre, Fairfield ; Ebenezer Dibblee, Stamford ; Matthew Graves, 
 New London and Charlestown ; John Beach, Newtown and 
 Redding ; Bela Hubbard, New Haven and West Haven ; Wil- 
 liam Gibbs, Simsbury and Hartford ; Roger Viets, assistant to 
 Mr. Gibbs ; Richard Mansfield, Derby and Oxford ; Richard 
 S. Clark, New Milford, Woodbury, Kent, New Fairfield and 
 Sharon; James Scovill, Waterbury and Westbury; Samuel 
 Peters, Hebron ; Samuel Andrews, Wallingford, Cheshire and 
 North Haven ; John Tyler, Norwich ; Daniel Fogg, Pomfret, 
 Plainfield and Canterbury. Dr. Beardsley's list of clergy at this 
 time gives all the above except Mr. Gibbs, and adds the Rev. 
 John Rutgers Marshall, of Woodbury ; Rev. Gideon Bostwick, 
 of Great Barrington, Mass., (who was reckoned as with the 
 Connecticut clergy;) Dr. Samuel Seabury of Westchester, 
 N. Y. and Rev. James Nichols, Plymouth and Bristol, a 
 graduate of Yale 1771, and the last missionary of the Society 
 that went to England for ordination. Abraham Jarvis of 
 Middletown should also be added. 
 
 These twenty-one ministers and their predecessors had regu- 
 larly read the first and second lessons at each service, which was 
 so pleasing to the people generally that the Congregational 
 ministers by this time had generally adopted the custom of 
 reading the Scripture in public. It is claimed that before the 
 Episcopalians came, the Bible was never read in public, not 
 even so much as the Ten Commandments or the Lord's Prayer. 
 Dr. Beardsley speaks of this in his history of the Church, and 
 we find that several missionaries refer to it m their letters to 
 
IN CONNECTICUT. 77 
 
 the Society. The Rev. Mr. Arnold, in 1736, performed Divine 
 Service at Milford and describes the town as a place " where 
 the use of the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, and the Ten Command- 
 ments, or the reading of the Scripture in Divine Service was 
 never before known. " Rev. John Beach, in 1772, writes that 
 he has " performed divine service in many towns where the 
 Common Prayer had never been heard, nor the Holy Scrip- 
 tures read in public . . . and in some places where there 
 never had been any public worship at all, nor any sermon 
 preached by any teacher of any denomination. " 
 
 The digest of the reports of the S. P. G. tells of two Dissent- 
 ing ministers in New England who " put on ye courage to read 
 the Holy Bible in the meeting and say the Lord's Prayer, a 
 thing not done before, and they resolved to continue it tho' very 
 much opposed." In Solomon Palmer's "Mission," (1754 to 
 1771,) one parish of Dissenters, from observing the regular 
 method of reading the Scripture in Church, " Voted, that a new 
 folio Bible be bought for them and that their Teacher read 
 lessons out of it Sunday, morning and evening. " Some of the 
 missionaries who gave us these facts had for years been Dis- 
 senting ministers and therefore were in a position to know what 
 the custom of the Standing Order was before the Episcopalians 
 came here. The reading of the Scripture in public was prob- 
 ably omitted so as to avoid all appearance of everything 
 ritualistic, and no doubt this omission was made in England at 
 the time they left the Mother Church and made so many radical 
 changes in order to avoid the forms which they denounced as 
 Popish. That the Puritans and Pilgrims as early as 1624 were 
 not accustomed to read the Scripture in public, is indicated 
 from the fact that before that date a young woman member 
 of the Separatists Church, at London, was the subject of dis- 
 cipline for the offense of " attending the service of the Church 
 of England, especially for the purpose of hearing the Scrip- 
 ture read and explained. " [John Robinson, by Rev. O. S. 
 Davis, D.D., p. 176.] She would not have gone to the service 
 of the Church of England especially to hear the Scripture read, 
 if it had then been the custom to do so in the Dissenting church. 
 
 In 1765, five of the missionaries of Connecticut wrote a letter 
 to the Society relative to what is called " the imposition of 
 
78 THE CHURCH 
 
 Stamp duties : saying that " We think it our incumbent duty 
 to warn our hearers in particular of the unreasonableness and 
 wickedness of their taking the least part in any tumult or 
 opposition to his Majesty's acts. " As a rule the Episcopalians, 
 remembering with the sincerest gratitude the favors they had 
 received from the mother country, were not inclined towards 
 rebellious conduct. For these reasons, those who were bitterly 
 opposed to the Stamp act, (although the act was repealed about 
 1766,) were displeased with the Episcopalians, much of the old 
 bitterness towards them was revived and the establishment of 
 an American Episcopate was looked upon with increasing 
 terror. 
 
 In May, 1766, steps were taken by the Synod of New York 
 and Philadelphia to organize an Anti-Episcopal Convention for 
 the sole object of opposing an American Episcopate. A fuller 
 account of this Convention is given in the preceding chapter. 
 Connecticut had her full share in this Convention, the Standing 
 Order having resolved in their Association at Guilford, June 3, 
 1766, to accept the invitation of the Synod and join them in 
 Convention. The first Convention was held at Elizabethtown, 
 N. J., Nov. 5, 1766, with six members present from Connecticut 
 the first day, and two more on the day following. The sermon 
 was by Noah Wells. Nearly a month previous, the Episcopal 
 clergy of Connecticut had petitioned for a Bishop. The peti- 
 tion was dated Oct. 8, 1766, and signed by Samuel Johnson, 
 President, and eleven other clergy. The Anti-Episcopal Con- 
 vention met annually for ten years, 1766 to 1775 inclusive, 
 meeting every alternate year in Connecticut. The Congre- 
 gationalists of Connecticut had several different Associations, 
 three of which were not represented at the first Convention, 
 and in 1768, the Association from the Western district of New 
 London County sent a letter to the Convention giving reasons 
 why they declined to send delegates. The Rev. John Smalley 
 of New Britain was one of the committee in 1768 to prepare 
 the letter to the Dissenters in London and also one of the com- 
 mittee to carry on correspondence with friends in London, 
 Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Hampshire. Rev. 
 Eliphalet Whittlesey preached the Convention sermon in 1768, 
 and on Connecticut matters their friends in England were to 
 
IN CONNECTICUT. 79 
 
 write to Messrs. Whitman and Wells, and in 1769 to Wells and 
 Mather. In 1769, Connecticut had a majority in the Conven- 
 tion, there being eleven members from Connecticut and only 
 seven from New York and New Jersey. In 1770, Rev. 
 Nathaniel Taylor was president of the Convention and Messrs. 
 Hobart and Ross were appointed to " collect instances of lenity 
 of their government with regard to Episcopal Dissenters 
 therein. " In 177 1, Mr. Wells was appointed to canvass Nova 
 Scotia and Mr. Goodrich to canvass Connecticut and report the 
 character of the laws relating to ecclesiastical affairs, and the 
 number of Episcopalians and Non-Episcopalians in these prov- 
 inces. From this we see that no less than nine Congrega- 
 tional ministers of Connecticut were prominent in, and received 
 special honors from this Anti-Episcopal Convention. The 
 General Association of Congregationalists in Connecticut also 
 voted their support and sympathy from time to time, and at 
 Watertown, June 16, 1772, instructed their delegates to 
 "heartily concur with the Southern Gentlemen in counteracting 
 any Motions that have or shall be made for sd. Episcopate." 
 
 The report of the Rev. Elizur Goodrich, D.D., of Durham, is 
 the only one of the several reports that has been printed. His 
 essay on the ecclesiastical laws of the Colony attempts to show 
 how good the " religious Establishment " of the Colony was ; 
 that the Hardships which the Episcopalians complained of did 
 not exist, and that the laws regulating taxes were made for 
 their benefit and at their request. He also appears to think 
 that the Established Churches would not be adverse to an 
 alteration of the law so as to make the Episcopalians 
 " altogether disconnected " and to enable them " to do their own 
 business without any concern " of the Established Churches. 
 His census was as follows : — 
 
8o 
 
 THE CHURCH 
 
 An account of the number of the inhabitants of Connecticut, 
 Jan. I, 1774, and an estimate of the proportion of the Episco- 
 palians and Non-EpiscopaHans : 
 
 
 Hartford County. 
 
 
 
 Town. Epis. 
 
 Non-Epis. 
 
 Total. 
 
 Bolton, .... 
 
 994 
 
 994 
 
 Chatham, 
 
 
 
 90 
 
 2289 
 
 2369 
 
 East Haddam, 
 
 
 
 88 
 
 2655 
 
 2743 
 
 Enfield, 
 
 
 
 
 1353 
 
 1353 
 
 Farmington, 
 
 
 
 244 
 
 5719 
 
 5963 
 
 Glastenbury, 
 
 
 
 
 1992 
 
 1992 
 
 Haddam, 
 
 
 
 23 
 
 1690 
 
 1713 
 
 Hartford, 
 
 
 
 III 
 
 4770 
 
 4881 
 
 Simsbury, 
 
 
 
 914 
 
 2757 
 
 3671 
 
 Somers, 
 
 
 
 
 1024 
 
 1024 
 
 Suffield, 
 
 
 
 
 1980 
 
 1980 
 
 Tolland, 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 1242 
 
 1247 
 
 Wethersfield, 
 
 
 
 6 
 
 3341 
 
 3347 
 
 Willington, . 
 
 
 
 
 1000 
 
 1000 
 
 Colchester, 
 
 
 
 No report. 
 
 
 3057 
 
 East Windsor, 
 
 
 
 
 
 2961 
 
 Hebron, 
 
 
 
 
 
 2285 
 
 Middletown, 
 
 
 
 
 
 4680 
 
 Stafi:ord, 
 
 
 
 
 
 1333 
 
 Windsor, 
 
 
 
 
 
 2082 
 
 I to 22. Total, 
 
 Town. 
 
 New Haven, 
 
 Branford, 
 
 Derby, 
 
 Durham, 
 
 Guilford, 
 
 Milford, 
 
 Wallingford, 
 
 Waterbury, 
 
 I to 7. Total, 
 
 147 1 
 
 New Haven County, 
 
 32806 50675 
 
 Epis. Non-Epis. 
 
 Total. 
 
 942 7080 
 
 8022 
 
 86 1852 
 
 1938 
 
 725 1094 
 
 1819 
 
 6 1025 
 
 IO3I 
 
 213 2633 
 
 2846 
 
 153 1812 
 
 1965 
 
 626 41 5 I 
 
 4777 
 
 No report. 
 
 3498 
 
 2751 19647 25896 
 
IN CONNECTICUT. 
 
 8i 
 
 
 New London County. 
 
 
 
 Town. Epis. 
 
 Non-Epis. 
 
 Total. 
 
 Preston, . . . . 221 
 
 2034 
 
 2255 
 
 Groton, 
 
 
 
 222 
 
 3266 
 
 3488 
 
 Killingworth, 
 
 
 
 68 
 
 1889 
 
 1957 
 
 Stonington, . 
 
 
 
 32 
 
 4924 
 
 4956 
 
 Saybrook, 
 
 
 
 33 
 
 2595 
 
 2628 
 
 New London, 
 
 
 
 No report 
 
 
 5366 
 
 Norwich, 
 
 
 
 « (( 
 
 
 7032 
 
 Lyme, 
 
 
 
 (( (( 
 
 
 3860 
 
 I to 25. Total, 
 
 596 
 
 14708 
 
 31542 
 
 Fairfield County. 
 
 
 
 Town. Epis. 
 
 Non-Epis. 
 
 Total. 
 
 Danbury, .... 420 
 
 2053 
 
 2473 
 
 Greenwich, . 
 
 
 
 443 
 
 221 1 
 
 2654 
 
 New Fairfield, 
 
 
 
 87 
 
 I20I 
 
 1288 
 
 Newtown, 
 
 
 
 1084 
 
 1084 
 
 2168 
 
 Norwalk, 
 
 
 
 792 
 
 3451 
 
 4243 
 
 Redding, 
 
 
 
 478 
 
 711 
 
 1 189 
 
 Ridgefield, 
 
 
 
 329 
 
 1344 
 
 1673 
 
 Stamford, 
 
 
 
 710 
 
 2793 
 
 3503 
 
 Fairfield, 
 
 
 > 
 
 No report. 
 
 
 4544 
 
 Stratford, 
 
 
 
 (( (( 
 
 
 5201 
 
 10 to 34. Total, 
 
 4343 
 
 14848 
 
 28936 
 
 Windham County. 
 
 
 
 Town Epis. 
 
 Non-Epis. 
 
 Total. 
 
 Coventry, . . . . 11 
 
 2021 
 
 2032 
 
 Pom fret. 
 
 
 
 55 
 
 2186 
 
 2241 
 
 Kilingly, 
 
 
 
 30 
 
 3409 
 
 3439 
 
 Lebanon, 
 
 
 
 36 
 
 3805 
 
 3841 
 
 Mansfield, 
 
 
 
 12 
 
 2431 
 
 2443 
 
 Plainfield, 
 
 
 
 
 1479 
 
 1479 
 
 Voluntown, 
 
 
 
 6 
 
 1470 
 
 1476 
 
 Union, 
 
 
 
 
 512 
 
 512 
 
 Canterbury, . 
 Ashford, 
 
 
 
 No report. 
 « « 
 
 
 2392 
 2228 
 
 Windham, 
 
 
 
 (( t( 
 
 
 3437 
 
 Woodstock, . 
 
 
 
 tt ti 
 
 
 1974 
 
 1 to 115. Total, . 
 
 150 
 
 I73I3 
 
 27494 
 
»2 
 
 
 THE CHURCH 
 
 
 
 Litchfield County. 
 
 
 
 Town. Epis. 
 
 Non-Epis. 
 
 Total. 
 
 Litchfield, .... 191 
 
 I318 
 
 1509 
 
 Canaan, 
 
 
 
 91 
 
 1482 
 
 1573 
 
 Cornwall, 
 
 
 
 S3 
 
 904 
 
 957 
 
 Hartland, 
 
 
 
 49 
 
 451 
 
 500 
 
 New Hartford, 
 
 
 
 25 
 
 960 
 
 985 
 
 Norfolk, 
 
 
 
 38 
 
 928 
 
 966 
 
 Salisbury, 
 
 
 
 91 
 
 1845 
 
 1936 
 
 Sharon, 
 
 
 
 83 
 
 1903 
 
 1986 
 
 Torrington, , 
 
 
 
 31 
 
 912 
 
 843 
 
 Barkhampstead, 
 
 
 
 No report 
 
 
 250 
 
 Colebrook, 
 
 
 
 
 
 150 
 
 Goshen, 
 
 
 
 
 
 1098 
 
 Harwinton, 
 
 
 
 
 
 1015 
 
 Kent, . 
 
 
 
 
 
 1922 
 
 New Milford, 
 
 
 
 
 
 2742 
 
 Westmoreland, 
 
 
 
 
 
 1922 
 
 Winchester, . 
 
 
 
 
 
 327 
 
 Woodbury, . 
 
 
 
 
 
 5224 
 
 I to 16. Total, 
 
 655 
 
 10600 
 
 2594^ 
 
 Summary. 
 
 
 
 County. Epis. 
 
 Non-Epis. 
 
 Total. 
 
 Hartford Co., . . . 147 1 
 
 32806 
 
 50675 
 
 New Haven Co., 
 
 
 
 2751 
 
 19647 
 
 25896 
 
 New London Co., 
 
 
 
 596 
 
 14708 
 
 31542 
 
 Fairfield Co., 
 
 
 
 4343 
 
 14848 
 
 28936 
 
 Windham Co., 
 
 
 
 150 
 
 I73I3 
 
 27494 
 
 Litchfield Co., 
 
 
 
 655 
 
 10542 
 
 25944 
 
 Total, 
 
 9966 II 9922 190487 
 
 I Epis. to 12 Non Epis. nearly; the Episcopalians about one 
 to thirteen of the whole number of inhabitants, and probably 
 there would be no great difference from this proportion were 
 tlie account of all the towns come in, which I hope soon to 
 gain. 
 
 Elizur Goodrich. 
 
 Durham, Sep. 5, A. D. 1774. 
 
IN CONNECTICUT. 83 
 
 There are a few errors in footing that do not affect the 
 proportion of EpiscopaHans to the Non-Episcopalians. The 
 figures here given are the same as in the printed Goodrich report. 
 
 Of the towns not reported, Hebron and Middletown in Hart- 
 ford County ; Waterbury in New Haven County ; New London 
 and Norwich in New London County ; Fairfield and Stratford 
 in Fairfield County ; and New Milford and Woodbury in 
 Litchfield County, are among the towns where the Episcopa- 
 lians were the most numerous, so that a full report would no 
 doubt have shown a much larger percentage of Episcopalians. 
 Only eight towns are reported as containing no Episcopalians. 
 Newtown is the only one reported in which the number of Epis- 
 copalians equals that of all others, besides having the largest 
 number, 1084, of any reported town. New Haven is second 
 with 942, and Simsbury third with 914. 
 
 The Revolutionary War terminated these conventions and 
 suspended all efforts towards establishing an American Episco- 
 pate, 
 
 The history of what others did against the Church people dur- 
 ing the war would alone make a large volume, while the history 
 of what the Church people did for the advancement of the 
 Church may be told in few words — they did nothing but exist. 
 That was all they could do. Naturally and properly, the mis- 
 sionaries and their people were slow to commit any overt act 
 against the king, and hence were censured and abused. For 
 a time all of the churches were closed and public services 
 suspended, save at Newtown and Redding, where the Rev. 
 John Beach presided. The few churches that were after- 
 wards opened omitted the Prayers for the king, and some 
 otherwise modified their service. Nearly all of the clergy, 
 excepting Messrs. Jarvis, Hubbard and Tyler, were subjected 
 to imprisonment, mob violence, banishment, or other persecu- 
 tion, and even these had narrow escapes. Acts of violence that 
 would never have been thought of except in war time, were 
 perpetrated, of which we will give only one case by each party. 
 
 The Rev. Dr. Mather of Stamford, who figured in the Anti- 
 Episcopal Convention, was, with his four sons, taken from the 
 parsonage at night by eight loyalists and carried to New York. 
 
 The Rev. Jeremiah Leaming, D.D., of Norwalk, one of the 
 ablest and most respected missionaries of the S. P. G., had his 
 
84 THE CHURCH 
 
 estate confiscated. His picture was defaced by a mob and 
 then nailed to a sign post bottom side up, and finally, Dr. Learn- 
 ing was confined in the Fairfield County jail for so long a time 
 that he contracted a hip disease that made him a cripple for life. 
 In New London, however, the Congregationalists and Episco- 
 palians dwelt together in harmony, (although some indignities 
 against the Rev. Mr. Graves were indulged in by the crowd.) 
 In January, 1780, the Episcopalians voted to allow the Congre- 
 gationalists the use of the church during the winter. For a 
 fuller account of revolutionary history and acts, we refer to 
 Beardsley's " History " , Chapter xxiv ; Sabine's " American 
 Loyalists " ; and Hawk's and Perry's " Documentary History 
 of the Church in Connecticut." For other facts before the 
 Revolution see " Sketches of Church Life in Colonial Connecti- 
 cut " , by Lucy Cushing Jarvis, 1902. 
 
 The Rev. John Beach of Newtown writes to the Secretary 
 of the S. P. G., Oct. 31, 1781, that Newtown and Redding he 
 believes are " the only parts of New England that have refused 
 to comply with the doings of the Congress, and for that reason 
 have been the butt of general hatred. Am now in the 82d year 
 of my age, " have been " 60 years a public preacher, and after 
 conviction in the Church of England 50 years," But in 1783 
 Messrs. Beach, Gibbs and Kneeland were dead, and others had 
 removed, so that, including Bostwick of Great Barrington, 
 there were only fourteen clergy left in the Colony. Messrs. 
 Andrews, Scovill, Clark and Viets soon after removed to Nova 
 Scotia, leaving only nine clergymen of the Church within the 
 bounds of the State. 
 
 In March, 1783, ten of the clergy met quietly at Woodbury 
 and elected the Rev. Samuel Seabury for their Bishop. He had 
 been before introduced to England by a letter of Dr. Samuel 
 Johnson dated Sept. 29, 1748, saying that young Seabury 's 
 father has " a promising son, and as he designs him for the 
 Society's service, he desires me to mention what I know of him, 
 and as he has lived for four years much under my eye, I can 
 truly testify of him that he is a solid sensible, virtuous youth, 
 and I doubt not may in due time do good service. " Dr. 
 Samuel Seabury arrived in London, July 7, 1783, but it was 
 over a year before he could return as the first Bishop in 
 
IN CONNECTICUT. 85 
 
 America, and " do good service " in Connecticut, as he finally 
 did. The work of the S. P. G. had now ceased in the United 
 States but was continued in the British Provinces of America. 
 Dr. Seabury was made very uneasy when in London, by hear- 
 ing reports that several of the Connecticut missionaries were 
 expected in Nova Scotia with a large portion of their congrega- 
 tions. In May, 1784, he says if these gentlemen " do not 
 choose to stay in Connecticut why should a Bishop go there, I 
 answer one reason of their going is the hope of enjoying their 
 religion fully, which they cannot do . . . without a 
 Bishop." He was also desirous of having a law passed to per- 
 mit a Bishop to reside in Connecticut, fearing that the absence 
 of such a law might be urged against his consecration. He 
 was informed that the new laws of the State, 1784, (which had 
 not then been published,) gave all that was desired. The law 
 relating to denominations other than the Standing Order was 
 the first to use the word " Episcopal ", and gave that Church the 
 same powers and privileges as the ecclesiastical societies estab- 
 lished by law, and " all the legal rights and powers intended by 
 our constitution to be given to any denomination. " The Rev. 
 Dr. Leaming and Rev. Abraham Jarvis were instrumental in 
 having this law enacted. Taxes were still laid on every adult 
 male, for ministers' support and " meeting-houses " of the 
 Standing Order, but all persons of every other denomination 
 could be exempted from such taxes, by filing a proper certi- 
 ficate showing that they attended Divine Service elsewhere and 
 paid their full share for its support. From this time on the much 
 abused Separatists or Strict Congregationalists and the doubly- 
 taxed Episcopalians, had no substantial grievance under the law. 
 In fact by this time the distinction between the Straight Congre- 
 gationalists and those of the Standing Order had vanished, for 
 now the rock upon which they split, the half-way covenant, had 
 been largely discontinued. It was discontinued at New Britain 
 in 1767; at Southington before 1780; at Hartford between 
 1 77 1 and 1804; at Newington between 1775 and 1805, and 
 about the beginning of the 19th century it was universally 
 abandoned. The early laws of the Colony were not hard on the 
 people during the conditions for which they were made. They 
 did well enough for the first seventy-five years. In 1708 
 
S6 THE CHURCH 
 
 the followers of Hooker were overthrown, and for about 
 seventy-five years more the Saybrook Platformists were the 
 new Standing Order; they ruled with an iron hand and 
 refused to modify their laws to adapt them to the new condi- 
 tions of the Colony. It was under the rule of the new Standing 
 Order that Episcopalians had to suffer ; but even the Episco- 
 palians fared better under the law than did the Straight Con- 
 gregationalists. The latter were practically told by the Gen- 
 eral Court of 1743 that they need not expect any favor of the 
 Assembly. But in 1784, when the new Standing Order were 
 returning to the ways of Hooker, who was a Straight Congrega- 
 tionalist, they began to look upon others with more favor, and 
 then, for the first time they placed all who differed from them 
 in religion upon substantially an equal footing. And now that 
 Standing Order of Connecticut, who for seventy-five years 
 treated Episcopalians and Straight Congregationalists with 
 great injustice, is a thing of the past; the Episcopalians still 
 survive, and there are none other than Straight Congregation- 
 alists now in Connecticut. 
 
 A united people once more at peace, a repeal of all Colony 
 laws, and an entirely new revision of State laws, were the new 
 conditions in Connecticut that greeted the first Bishop of 
 America upon his return from Scotland in 1785, where he had 
 been consecrated Nov. 14, 1784. He had been thirty-one 
 years a missionary of the S. P. G., was absent for consecration 
 full two years, had more than expended all he had, and now 
 there was no provision whatever for his support. The London 
 "Seabury Commemoration", 1884, says "Providence had per- 
 mitted his native land to be a state without a King; it was 
 his cherished task to see that his native land should have a 
 Church, and not without a Bishop." 
 
 Two days after arriving at his home in New London, he 
 wrote to the Rev. Mr. Jarvis concerning the first Convention, 
 which met at Middletown, Aug. 2, 1785, with the Rev. Dr. 
 Learning as Chairman and the Rev. Mr. Jarvis Secretary, and 
 ten others in attendance. 
 
 On the next day, the Bishop was formally received, greeted 
 and accepted by the clergy, as their Bishop. Four persons were 
 ordained deacons, the first in the American Church. At the 
 
IN CONNECTICUT. 87 
 
 conclusion of the service the Bishop dissolved the Convention 
 and directed the clergy to meet at five o'clock in " Convocation," 
 There had been voluntary conventions of the clergy from 1739, 
 but this is the first time that the word "Convocation" was applied 
 to a meeting of the clergy in Connecticut. It was so called 
 because they were convoked by Episcopal authority. After the 
 organization of the Convention of clergy and lay delegates in 
 1792, the Convocation ceased to act upon affairs concerning 
 the temporal interests of the Diocese, while it still, if requested, 
 advised upon them. [Printed " Records of Convocation ", pp. 
 12 and 13.] The four last recorded meetings of the Convoca- 
 tion were held in 1830, 1837, 1847 ^^^ 1848, respectively. 
 
 The subject of changes in the Prayer Book was discussed at 
 Middletown, and on Aug. 12, 1785, the Bishop issued a pastoral 
 letter enjoining the clergy to make certain changes in con- 
 nection with the State Prayers and mention of the British 
 government. 
 
 The Convocation at Derby, Sept. 22, 1786, adopted further 
 changes in the Prayer Book, including " The Communion 
 Office " based upon the Liturgy of the Church in Scot- 
 land. The day after Bishop Seabury's consecration he 
 made a " Concordate " with the Scottish Bishops. Without 
 " prescribing to their Brethren in this matter " of the Com- 
 munion Office, they recommended " the most primitive Doc- 
 trine and practice in that respect, which is the pattern the 
 Church of Scotland has copied after in her Communion Office. " 
 And on the other part " Bishop Seabury agrees to take a seri- 
 ous View of the Communion Office recommended by them and 
 if found agreeable to the genuine Standards of Antiquity, to 
 give his sanction to it, and by gentle Methods of x\rgument 
 and Persuasion, to endeavor as they have done to introduce it 
 by degrees into practice without the Compulsion of Authority 
 on the one side or the prejudice of former Custom on the 
 other. " 
 
 The " Communion Office " with "Private Devotions Recom- 
 mended to the Episcopal Congregations in Connecticut By 
 the Right Reverend Bishop Seabury " was printed at New 
 London by T. Green in 1786. At this time there were many, 
 especially in the South, that thought Bishop Seabury's conse- 
 
88 THE CHURCH 
 
 cration illegal and for that reason an effort was made to have 
 New England, under Bishop Seabury, remain only a branch of 
 the American Church. But in strict accordance with the Con- 
 cordate " by gentle methods of argument and persuasion . . . 
 without the compulsion of authority " and with a sacrifice of 
 all personal rights and interests, Bishop Seabury and his friends 
 succeeded in uniting all conflicting elements in one American 
 Church, bringing together the Bishops of the English and 
 Scottish succession and adopting, in 1789, the revised Prayer 
 Book with that ancient " Communion Office " which was after 
 the pattern of the Church of Scotland, but which is now in 
 regular use only in the American Church. 
 
 The first occasion on which Bishop Seabury wore his Epis- 
 copal attire and mitre is said to have been at the consecration of 
 St. James's church at New London, Sept. 20, 1787. The 
 Psalms were beautifully chanted and most of the clergy present 
 were vested in their robes. 
 
 In 1787, an unusual incident occurred at Barkhamsted, when 
 the Rev. Jonathan Marsh. A.M., Congregational minister at 
 New Hartford, preached a Christmas Sermon to the Episco- 
 palians, which he did at their request. It was printed at Hart- 
 ford that year and a copy of it is now in the library of the 
 Connecticut Historical Society. 
 
 On June 2, 1790, the Bishop and fifteen clergymen met in 
 the Presbyterian Meeting-house at Litchfield and appointed a 
 committee on the Constitution and Canons of the Church, and 
 Oct. I, 1790, at Newtown, the enactments of the " General Con- 
 vention at Philadelphia on the 2^ day of Octob' 1789" were 
 approved and adopted by a vote of 13 to i. 
 
 In 1790, Rhode Island was added to Bishop Seabury's charge. 
 
 The dying grip of the Standing Order on the purses of other 
 denominations rallied a little in May, 1791, when an act was 
 passed in addition to, and in alteration of, the certificate 
 exemption law of 1784, whereby no certificate was legal unless 
 the party claiming exemption was examined by two justices, 
 (or one in case the town did not have two,) who should give 
 the desired certificate if " they shall judge the same well 
 founded." The Convocation of Oct. 5, 1791, voted to ask for 
 the repeal of this law and in that month both certificate laws 
 
IN CONNECTICUT. 89 
 
 were repealed and a new one passed, granting exemption on the 
 same conditions as before, upon filing of a certificate merely 
 signed by the applicant. 
 
 On Oct. 5, 1791, the Convocation at Watertown appointed 
 the first Standing Committee, consisting of five clergymen, as 
 laymen at that date had no part in the management of Diocesan 
 matters. This has never been changed, and the Standing Com- 
 mittee of to-day is composed of five clergymen. Of the ninety- 
 four Dioceses of the Church in America, only four, Connecticut, 
 Maryland, Easton of Maryland and Michigan City of Indiana, 
 have no lay members on the Standing Committee. 
 
 On Oct. 7, 1791, the same Convocation voted — "That each 
 Clergyman recommended it to the people of his Ctirc to choose 
 one or more persons to represent them at a Convocation to be 
 holden at the Church in New Haven on the 30th of May 
 next. . . . which representatives are to be considered as 
 a Committee of conference, to confer with the Convocation, 
 at that time & place, on all matters that respect the temporal 
 interest of the Church." In conformity therewith the clergy 
 met separately in Convocation at Trinity Church, New Haven, 
 June 6, 1792, and on the same day in that church the "Bishop, 
 Clergy and Laity of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Con- 
 necticut " held their first Annual Convention. There were 
 twenty of the clergy and twenty-four of the laity present. The 
 lay delegates are arranged in the Journal by counties, and Hart- 
 ford County is the only one not represented. The first busi- 
 ness of the Convention was the adoption of " The constitution of 
 the Protestant Episcopal Church in Connecticut." They then 
 appointed four clerical and four lay deputies to the next Gen- 
 eral Convention and appointed a committee to report to the 
 next Diocesan Convention a plan for a religious and charitable 
 society. After the several parishes in the State approved the 
 Constitution adopted in this Convention, the Diocese of Con- 
 necticut was duly established and thereafter met annually in 
 convention. The first society or parish formed within the 
 Diocese was that of Exeter in the town of Lebanon, which was 
 voted to be " a separate ecclesiastical society " by the Convo- 
 cation at Huntington, Oct, 10, 1792. The same Convocation 
 also took steps towards establishing a " Fund for the Bishop's 
 
90 THE CHURCH 
 
 support " ; but it did not mature in Bishop Seabury's time. 
 After numerous delays, an act of incorporation was passed in 
 May, 1799, but the trustees do not appear to have been active 
 until about 1803. In that year the Convention voted that no 
 delegate be admitted to the Convention unless he delivered, 
 with his certificate, the grand levy of the Church he wished to 
 represent. This levy was to be used as a basis of assessments 
 for the Bishop's fund. 
 
 When the annual Convention met at Middletown, June 5, 
 1793, it appeared from the reports of the lay delegates and 
 certificates exhibited that the " Constitution of the Church in 
 Connecticut had been fully approved and adopted by a great 
 majority of the Churches in the State. " 
 
 The practicability of instituting an Episcopal Academy in 
 this State was considered as early as the Spring of 1789, and in 
 the Convocation of Feb. 15, 1792, the several clergy were 
 requested to see what could be done towards erecting an Episco- 
 pal Academy. The matter was considered in the annual Con- 
 vention of 1794. The committee reported to the Convention of 
 1795 and it was voted that the Academy be established. The 
 constitution of the Academy was adopted in the Convention of 
 1796. In 1802 the State authorized a lottery to raise $15,000 
 for the Episcopal Academy. The Bishop's address to the Con- 
 vention of 1892 refers to this Academy as " our oldest Diocesan 
 Institution." Also in 1894, one hundred years after the 
 Academy was instituted, when the Bishop says that from 1796 
 the " Trustees have been elected by the Convention of the 
 Diocese. " 
 
 The Convention of 1795 voted that the Journals of the Con- 
 vention from the first be printed, and that in future they be 
 published annually. Bishop Seabury's Psalter " was also 
 printed in 1795, by Thomas C. Green, New London. " It is 
 mentioned at length in Beardsley's " Life of Bishop Seabury," 
 and is described also in Dr. Wright's " Early Prayer Books of 
 America." It was a book for family use and was never known 
 to have been used in the churches. Only three copies of it are 
 now known to be in existence. They belong respectively to 
 Mr, James Terry of Hartford, Mr, Henry White of New 
 Haven, and Mr, George Hoadley of Hartford, 
 
IN CONNECTICUT. pi 
 
 A national Thanksgiving was appointed by George Wash- 
 ington, the President, for Feb. 19, 1795. The proclamation 
 was not read at New London because the date appointed fell in 
 Lent, which was not considered an appropriate time for Thanks- 
 giving. It was also considered objectionable to observe Fast 
 day during Easter week, although not objectionable during 
 Lent. These matters were discussed in the Connecticut 
 " Gazette " and Bishop Seabury gave his views of the matter, 
 although his name did not appear as the author. Governor 
 Huntington of Norwich was a friend of the Bishop. The Con- 
 gregationalists of Norwich were then worshipping in the Epis- 
 copal Church by the courtesy of the Episcopalians. The annual 
 State Fast for 1795 was appointed for Good Friday by Gover- 
 nor Huntington, and this was the first time that the State Fast 
 in Connecticut had ever been appointed on Good Friday. It 
 was again so appointed for 1797, and since then that has been 
 the continuous practice. [Fast and Thanksgiving days in New 
 England, by Rev. W. DeLoss Love, Jr., Ph.D.] 
 
 At the General or Triennial Convention in 1792, Bishop Sea- 
 bury waived his right to preside, and agreed to exercise the 
 Presidency in rotation with the other Bishops. This made 
 Bishop Provoost the Presiding Officer, and the consecrator, with 
 the other Bishops, of the Rev. Thomas Claggett, D.D. 
 
 Bishop Seabury's first ordinations were at Middletown, 
 Aug. 3, 1785, when Messrs. Furgeson, Van Dyke, Baldwin and 
 Shelton were made deacons. His last ordination was at St. 
 Matthew's, East Plymouth, Oct. 21, 1795, the day of conse- 
 crating the church, when Alexander Viets Griswold, after- 
 wards Bishop of the Eastern Diocese, was ordained priest. 
 The first confirmation in America was by Bishop Seabury at 
 Stratford. His first consecration of a church was at Norwalk, 
 in July, 1786, and his last known official act was the consecra- 
 tion of St. Mark's Church, Harwinton, Oct. 22, 1795. He died 
 suddenly on Feb. 25, 1796. 
 
 Bishop Seabury's first charge to the clergy, at New Haven, 
 Aug. 4, 1785, is printed in the reprint of the Journals 1792 to 
 1820, p. 147, and a list of the ordinations by Bishops Seabury, 
 Jarvis, and Brownell, appear in the same reprint, and again with 
 additions up to date in the Journal for 1865, pp. 151-165; 
 
92 THE CHURCH 
 
 again in the Journal for 1866, pp. 166-180, and in the Journal 
 for 1886. The latter also contains a list of ordinations from 
 Connecticut by English Bishops and a list of clergymen 
 deceased up to July i, 1886. 
 
 In the Journal of 1882, pp. 152, etc., appears not merely a 
 list but the full record of Bishop Seabury's Ordinations. The 
 " Calendar " of Hartford for 1854 contains short biographical 
 notices, by Rev. A. B. Chapin, of all the clergymen ordained by 
 Bishops Seabury and Jarvis. They begin with the issue of 
 July I, and are concluded with the issue of Nov. 25. 
 
 At a special Convention held in Trinity church, New Haven, 
 May 5, 1796, the clerical and lay delegates formed two separate 
 houses for the purpose of deliberating separately on the subject 
 of electing a Bishop. The clergy made choice of the Rev. 
 Abraham Jarvis, but he declined the office. 
 
 The Rev. John Bowden was elected for Bishop, Oct. 19, 1796, 
 and on June 7, 1797, he signified to the Convention, in writing, 
 his non-acceptance of the Episcopate. 
 
 On June 7, 1797, at Derby, the Rev. Mr. Jarvis was unani- 
 mously reelected by the clergy. The laity were notified of his 
 election and they unanimously concurred. At the Commence- 
 ment at Yale in September, 1797, the degree of Doctor of Divin- 
 ity was conferred on the Rev. Abraham Jarvis, Bishop-elect of 
 the Church in Connecticut. In the church where he was first 
 elected he was consecrated on Oct. 18, 1797, by the Right Rev. 
 Dr. White of Pennsylvania, the Right Rev. Dr. Provoost of 
 New York, and the Right Rev. Dr. Bass of Massachusetts and 
 New Hampshire. 
 
 The Convention of June 6 and 7, 1798, appointed a com- 
 mittee " to draft an address to the President of the United 
 States." This address appears in the " Conn. Journal & 
 Weekley Advertiser" of New Haven, issue of Jan. 31, 1799, 
 together with a letter of acknowledgment and thanks from the 
 President, John Adams. The occasion for sending the address 
 was the war among the nations of Europe. The closing lines 
 of the address are as follows : — We " assure the Rulers of our 
 Country that we will use our best endeavors to promote unity 
 of opinion, respect for the laws, and reverence for all that are 
 in authority over us. And to do our best endeavors we add our 
 
IN CONNECTICUT. 93 
 
 prayers to Almighty God Beseeching Him to direct and dispose 
 the hearts of all Christian Rulers, that they may truly, and 
 impartially administer justice to the punishment of wickedness 
 and vice, and to the maintenance of true religion and virtue. " 
 Signed 
 
 " Abraham Bp. of Connecticut. " 
 
 The Records of Convocation, p. 53, show that the Rev. Mr. 
 Baldwin was appointed Aug. 22, 1798, to draft an address to 
 the President in behalf of the Convocation. The first men- 
 tioned address was in behalf of the Convention. 
 
 The English custom of omitting the surname in the official 
 signature was followed both by Bishop Seabury and Bishop 
 Jarvis, the latter being the last Bishop of Connecticut that thus 
 signed. A facsimile of one of Bishop Seabury's certificates 
 is shown at the beginning of this chapter. 
 
 The Canons for the Church in Connecticut were adopted at 
 the Convention held June 6, 1799, and are printed in the Journal. 
 
 When the Convention met at Newtown, June 3, 1801, a 
 procession was formed by its members, the clergy, in their 
 gowns, and marched from the house of the Rev. Mr. Burhans, 
 to the Episcopal church, attended by a band of music. This 
 custom of marching to the Convention in procession was 
 followed for many years. 
 
 Dr. Beardsley says that about this time there were not more 
 than half a dozen churches in the Diocese supplied with organs, 
 and their number was not much increased for twenty-five years. 
 Organs were used in Episcopal churches in this country for 
 more than fifty years before the Congregatignalists began to 
 use them. The first church organ in New England was placed 
 in King's Chapel, Boston, about 1714. The first organ in any 
 house of public worship in Connecticut, (according to Dr. 
 Beardsley,) was delivered to Christ Church, Stratford, the last 
 of April, 1756. Christ Church, Middletown, was finished in 
 1755, and Richard Alsop imported an organ from England and 
 presented it to the parish, but this was probably some time after 
 April, 1756. Trinity Church, New Haven, voted June 30, 
 1794, to hire Mr. Salter as organist for six months. The first 
 organ in any house of public worship in what is now Hartford 
 
94 THE CHURCH 
 
 County was placed in the Congregational church at Worth- 
 ington, (now Berlin,) 1792, and the first in an Episcopal church 
 of this county was in use at Christ Church, Hartford, at the 
 consecration of that church, Nov. 11, 1801, and for several 
 years these were the only organs in that part of the State. 
 
 At the annual Convention of 1804, the members were 
 requested to procure various historical information as to early 
 Churches, clergymen and prominent lay brethren, and to trans- 
 mit the same to the editors of the " Churchman's Magazine." 
 This magazine was first published at New Haven in 1804, and 
 was the first diocesan paper in Connecticut, and also the first 
 Episcopal periodical ever published in this country. With 
 various interruptions, changes in management and place of 
 publication, it was continued until 1827, when it was succeeded 
 by the "Episcopal Watchman", of Hartford, until 1834. In 
 1837, the " Chronicle of the Church " was published at New 
 Haven by order of the Convention. In 1841 the name was 
 changed to the " Practical Christian and Church Chronicle " 
 and it continued to the end of 1844. It was succeeded by the 
 " Calendar " of Hartford in 1845 ^^^ the " Calendar " was 
 succeeded in 1866 by the " Connecticut Churchman." In 1867 
 the name was changed to " The Churchman ", and in July, 
 1877, the office of publication was removed to New York City, 
 where it is still published. A paper called " The Churchman " 
 had been published in New York, 1831 to about 1859, but as 
 it had ceased to exist, the proprietors of the paper published at 
 Hartford felt free, in 1867, to adopt that name. The present 
 New York paper is therefore a continuation of the diocesan 
 paper which was started in the Diocese of Connecticut and pub- 
 lished in that Diocese for seventy-four years. 
 
 The fashion set by the certificate law of 1784 and 1791, for 
 avoiding ecclesiastical taxes to the Standing Order, was often 
 followed in withdrawing from other societies. The following 
 is from the papers of the Episcopal Society of Barkhamsted, 
 and is dated June 20, 1805. 
 
 " This certyfies that i . . . having seriously taken it 
 into Consideration in what way is most Exceptable to worship 
 god i think the presbyterian way of worship the Best & shall 
 imBrace it in Future. " 
 
IN CONNECTICUT. 95 
 
 The Journal of the annual Convention for 1807 is the first 
 in which the Bishop's address appears. It was more in the 
 nature of a charge to the clergy and people than are the 
 addresses of recent years. Wardens and vestrymen of to-day 
 will find in this addtess such a clear and comprehensive state- 
 ment of their duties as to repay them for reading it. 
 
 The Bishop refers to, and rebukes, the practice of employing 
 lay preachers or preaching candidates. At this time there was 
 upon an average " more than two congregations to one Clergy- 
 man " in this Diocese and from lack of ministers or other cause, 
 as soon as persons were registered as candidates for holy orders 
 they began to preach as if they had a license. One person 
 began to preach in 1788 and was not made deacon until nearly 
 three years thereafter; another commenced to preach in 1802, 
 more than a year and a half before he was ordained, and there 
 were many more doing the same thing. No objection was 
 made to the employment of candidates to say the prayers and 
 to read a sermon, in the absence of a clergyman, but for one to 
 preach on the ground of being a candidate was contrary to the 
 principles of the Church and an error both on the part of the 
 candidate and of the parishioners who employed him. 
 
 At the annual Convention of 1808, the several parishes in the 
 Diocese were divided into thirty-four cures, covering by name 
 seventy-two parishes, and " parts adjacent." At that time 
 there were only twenty-six clergymen for these seventy-two 
 parishes, eight of the thirty-four cures being reported as 
 vacant. There were only four cures limited to one parish each. 
 One cure was composed of one parish and parts adjacent, nine- 
 teen cures were each composed of two parishes, one cure of two 
 parishes and parts adjacent, and nine cures were each composed 
 of three parishes. Even as late as the fall of 1819, there were 
 only seven parishes in the Diocese capable of supporting full 
 services independently. 
 
 The first parish reports appear in the Journal for 1809, but 
 out of the seventy-two parishes named in the cures of 1808 
 only twenty parishes are included in these reports. 
 
 In this Journal we also find a committee was appointed to 
 publish documents respecting Mr. Ammi Rogers " and distrib- 
 ute them to all persons who may wish for information on that 
 
g6 THE CHURCH 
 
 subject." There was no lack of material for this committee. 
 Without going into details, we may say that Mr. Rogers was 
 attempting to force himself upon the Diocese and to officiate 
 within it, in violation of the ancient canons of the Church. The 
 41st Canon passed at the Council of Laodicea, A.D. 321. pro- 
 vided " that no clergyman ought to travel without the consent 
 of his Bishop." The 13th Canon passed at the Council of 
 Chalcedon, being the fourth Council, A.D. 451, provided "that 
 a foreign clergyman and not known shall not officiate in another 
 city, without commendatory letters from his own Bishop." 
 The present canons as to removals had not then been adopted 
 here, but they are the same in substance as these ancient canons. 
 
 The Convocations of 1801 and 1803 requested of Rogers 
 testimonials from his Bishop, and in 1804, Bishop Jarvis for- 
 bade the clergy and Churches in this Diocese to allow Mr. 
 Rogers to ofificiate. But he continued to officiate, and after the 
 death of Bishop Jarvis, Bishop Hobart of New York, Rogers' 
 own Bishop, turned his back on him at Hebron. 
 
 The Bishop's address to the annual Convention 1812 gives 
 a history of the Bishop's fund and shows how insufficient it 
 had been and " with what languor, the support of the Bishop 
 has hitherto been regarded." All that his " worthy predeces- 
 sor received from the Diocese " he believed " did not amount 
 to the interest of the money he expended of his own property 
 to accomplish for us, the object of our wishes." These words 
 of Bishop Jarvis were not spoken for himself at his advanced 
 age, " with no rational prospect of any great length of days to 
 come." This was his last address to the Convention. He died 
 May 13, 1813, nineteen days before the sitting of the annual 
 Convention. This Convention passed a resolution requiring 
 every clergyman to preach a sermon to his parish strongly 
 enforcing the importance of raising " an adequate and reason- 
 able support of the Episcopate." The Grand Levy of the 
 Parishes ordered in 1803 was not required to be entered on the 
 Journal until 1805 and first appears in the Journal for 1806. 
 This course was continued for many years. In August, 1813, a 
 committee was appointed to lay a special assessment on each 
 parish in the Diocese " for raising the Bishop's Fund." At 
 the November Convention in that year, the Treasurer of the 
 
IN CONNECTICUT. 97 
 
 Bishop's fund was requested to visit the various parishes to 
 receive the money due on this assessment. Dr. Beardsley 
 says that the parish assessments of 1813 amounted to $16,570.00 
 and not quite one half of that sum was afterwards received. 
 In the Journal for 1817 there is a list of seventy-five parishes, 
 fourteen of which had paid their assessments in full, including 
 the parish of Christ Church, Middletown, which not only paid 
 its assessment early, but paid " one hundred and ninety two 
 dollars more." There were fifteen parishes that had paid 
 their assessments only in part, and forty-six parishes that had 
 not paid any of the assessment of 1813. In the Journal for 
 the year 1853, pp. 92-106, the amounts assessed in August, 
 
 1813, against the seventy-five parishes is given, with a statement 
 of those that had paid nothing. The committee reported that 
 some of these parishes were not then recognized by the geog- 
 raphy, and even the locality was not quite certain. At the 
 annual Convention of 1854, no one of the parishes reported as 
 delinquent for the assessments of 1813 and 1832 had paid any 
 part thereof, and their assessments were remitted. 
 
 The first effort for a missionary society, made at the Con- 
 vention of 1792, was reported in 1793 to have been too general 
 in its object to obtain the sanction of the Legislature. The 
 Journal of the 1797 Convention shows that money had been 
 collected " for the purpose of supporting Missionaries," but in 
 1798 such money was applied to the benefit of the Episcopal 
 Academy. 
 
 At the annual Convention of 1813, a committee was appointed 
 on the subject of a missionary society for the Church in this 
 State, to report to the next Convention. That Convention 
 appointed a new committee and at the October Convention, 
 
 1814, they reported a " Constitution for the establishment of 
 said Society." The report was read and accepted but does 
 not appear to have been adopted. At the annual Convention 
 of 181 5 a committee was appointed to draft a constitution for a 
 Bible and Prayer Book Society. This committee reported to 
 the annual Convention of 1816 and their report was approved, 
 but it was deemed inexpedient to connect said Society with 
 the Convention and the matter was referred to the consideration 
 of a meeting held later by friends of the cause. The Society 
 
98 THE CHURCH 
 
 was formed and its officers were reported in the first issue 
 of Swords' " Almanac " for the year 1817. The matter of a 
 missionary society was again before the Convention in the 
 spring of 1817, and the annual Convention of 1818 organized 
 a society under the name of " The Protestant Episcopal Society 
 for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge." Provision was 
 made in its constitution for the dissolution and absorption of 
 the " Bible and Common Prayer Book Society." The Christian 
 Knowledge Society is now known as the " Missionary Society 
 of the Diocese of Connecticut." 
 
 Shortly before the sitting of the annual Convention of 181 5, 
 Bishop Griswold of the Eastern Diocese, at the invitation of the 
 Standing Committee, performed Episcopal acts in this Diocese 
 which he reports in his address to the Eastern Convention in 
 1816. It appears from this address that he supposed he had 
 been invited to take charge in Connecticut. The Middlesex 
 " Gazette " for June 15, 1815, reports the confirmation of 
 twenty-two persons by Bishop Griswold at Christ Church, 
 Middletown, on Sunday, June 4 ; five ordinations Tuesday, June 
 6, and one ordination on Friday, June 9. The Convention 
 was held June 7, and Bishop Griswold was " requested to take 
 a seat in the Convention." He was also thanked for his sermon 
 at the ordination at Christ Church on June 5, not June 6, as 
 reported in the " Gazette." 
 
 The October Convention of 181 6 voted to invite the Rt. Rev. 
 John Henry Hobart of New York to perform the Episcopal 
 Offices in this Diocese. He accepted and delivered the sermon 
 at that Convention. Also at the annual Conventions of 1817 
 and 1818. Dr. Beardsley says that Bishop Plobart confirmed 
 in Connecticut 3,057 persons, only eleven less than the entire 
 number by Bishop Jarvis in his whole fifteen years of his Epis- 
 copate. Part of Bishop Hobart's Episcopal acts are reported 
 in the Middlesex " Gazette " issues of Feb. 29, 1816, Nov, 14, 
 1816, and Aug. 26, 1819, and in the " Christian Journal " 
 for October, 1817. 
 
 The Connecticut Bible Society issued a large edition of Bibles 
 and distributed them in the west, particularly in Ohio. The 
 word " ye " was substituted for zve in Acts vi, 3. In conse- 
 quence of this edition, the October Convention of 1816 
 
IN CONNECTICUT. 99 
 
 instructed their Deputies to the General Convention to endeavor 
 to have some specific edition of the Old and New Testament 
 recognized. This resulted in the adoption of the standard 
 version now in use. The story of its adoption is told by the 
 Bishop on pages 38 and 39 of the Convention Journal for 1881. 
 
 The first Episcopalian to be elected as a State Officer in 
 Connecticut was Jonathan Ingersoll, one of the wardens of 
 Trinity Church, New Haven, who was elected Lieutenant 
 Governor in 1816. 
 
 In October, 1817, Governor Wolcott appointed as usual a 
 minister of the Standing Order to preach the annual Election 
 Sermon in May, 1818. At the same time he appointed the Rev. 
 Harry Croswell, Rector of Trinity Parish, New Haven, as sub- 
 stitute preacher, in case of failure on the part of the regular 
 appointee. The latter early informed the Rev. Mr. Croswell 
 of his intention to default. Bishop Hobart advised the per- 
 formance of the full service of the Church, the same as usual, 
 and the use of Bishop Seabury's State Prayers. The sermon 
 was preached by Dr. Croswell in the Center Church at Hartford. 
 Two of the oldest Divines of the Standing Order were seated in 
 the pulpit. This was the first time an Episcopal minister ever 
 preached the State sermon in Connecticut. According to the 
 usual custom the sermon was printed. In 1822, Governor Wol- 
 cott appointed Bishop Brownell to preach the State sermon in 
 May of that year. " The Governor, State Officers, members 
 of the Legislature, and a numerous body of the clergy, moved 
 under a military escort to the Episcopal church at New Haven, 
 where Divine Service was performed and an eloquent and 
 patriotic sermon delivered by the Rt. Rev. Bishop Brownell." 
 [Conn. Mirror of May 6, 1822.] This is the first time that the 
 State of Connecticut ever worshiped in an Episcopal church. 
 What a marked contrast this shows over the days when Rev. 
 Abraham Jarvis, sometime after having been ordained in Eng- 
 land, attended an Election sermon at Hartford and the preacher 
 pointed at him in contempt, saying " What do they not deserve 
 who cross the Atlantic to bring Episcopal tyranny and super- 
 stition among us?" In 1828, the Rev. Nathaniel S. Wheaton 
 preached the Election sermon. These three are the only Epis- 
 copalians that ever delivered the Election sermon. Election 
 sermons were discontinued in 1830. 
 
lOO THE CHURCH 
 
 The Rev. Thomas C. Brownell, Assistant Minister of Trinity 
 Church, New York, was elected Bishop of this Diocese at the 
 annual Convention held in New Haven, June 2, 1819. At New 
 Haven, on Oct. 2^, 1819, a procession from the house of Gover- 
 nor Ingersoll was formed and proceeded to Trinity Church, 
 where the Rev. Thomas Church Brownell was consecrated to 
 the holy office of Bishop, by the Right Rev. Bishop White, 
 Right Rev. Bishop Hobart, and Right Rev. Bishop Griswold. 
 Morning prayers were read by the Rev. Reuben Ives and a 
 discourse delivered by the Right Rev. Bishop White. The 
 degree of D.D. was conferred by Columbia College upon 
 Bishop-elect Brownell, shortly before his consecration. 
 
 At the Convention which elected Bishop Brownell, the ven- 
 erable Dr. Richard Mansfield, in the ninety-seventh year of 
 his age, was present. He was made Doctor of Divinity by 
 Yale in 1792, the first Episcopalian to receive that honor. He 
 was the Rector of St. James's Church, Derby, for seventy-one 
 years and eight months. He had seen the Church in New 
 Haven grow from but two or three families to a society of about 
 2,000 souls. The only other minister in Connecticut whose 
 service in one parish exceeded his was the Rev. Samuel Nott, 
 pastor of the Congregational church at Franklin, who served 
 that parish seventy-one years and ten months. Rev. John 
 Beach of Newtown was the only Episcopal minister of fifty 
 years service prior to the close of the Revolutionary war. 
 Dibblee of Stamford and Tyler of Norwich both served before 
 and after the war for more than fifty years in all ; Hubbard of 
 New Haven nearly fifty years, while Croswell of New Haven, 
 Fogg of Brooklyn, and Shelton of Bridgeport, each served 
 forty or more years in the same parish. 
 
 The Theological Seminary of New York was transferred to 
 New Haven and opened Sept. 13, 1820, but was transferred 
 back to New York in October, 1821. Bishop Brownell's 
 address to the Convention in 1820 called attention to, and urged, 
 Sunday schools, which were then generally established through- 
 out the Diocese. 
 
 A *' Commentary on the Book of Common Prayer " was 
 prepared by Bishop Brownell and published in 1823. It was 
 the first work of the kind ever prepared in this country and 
 
IN CONNECTICUT. lOl 
 
 was so well received that an edition was afterwards published 
 by Bishop Hobart of New York. 
 
 Several unsuccessful efforts had been made to change the 
 Episcopal Academy at Cheshire into a college. At the annual 
 Convention of 1816, a committee was appointed to apply to the 
 General Assembly for an act of incorporation and charter 
 for an Episcopal College and this committee was continued by 
 the annual Convention of 181 7. 
 
 In December, 1822, at the house of Bishop Brownell, steps 
 were taken to renew the efforts to obtain a charter for an Epis- 
 copal College, which charter was granted to Washington Col- 
 lege, (now Trinity,) of Hartford, May 16, 1823. It was said 
 to have been the first college in America " under the special 
 patronage and guardianship of Episcopalians." It was built 
 in 1824, and Bishop Brownell was its first President. 
 
 On Feb. 15, 1828, Jacob Oson, a man of color, was made 
 deacon, and on the next day he was ordained priest with a 
 view to missionary service in Africa. The Bishop's address 
 to the Convention of 1829 refers to the death of this mission- 
 ary, which occurred as he was about to embark. " By this 
 dispensation of divine Providence one of the first efforts in our 
 Church in the cause of foreign missions has been defeated." 
 At that time there was an African Mission School in the Dio- 
 cese, where three very promising young men of color were in 
 course of preparation for the same field of labor. 
 
 At the sitting of the General Convention of the Church at 
 Philadelphia, in August, 1829, Bishop Brownell preached a 
 sermon before the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society. 
 He referred to the destitute condition of many places in the 
 southwest. As Bishop Brownell was then the youngest Bishop, 
 it was arranged that he should make an Episcopal visitation to 
 that country. Accordingly he started early in November and 
 visited parts of Ohio, Kentucky, Mississippi, Georgia, South 
 Carolina, and other of the Atlantic States, and returned home 
 early in March, 1830, having traversed an extent of country 
 of at least six thousand miles, three hundred of which he 
 traveled on horseback. He performed " Episcopal functions 
 where never a prelate of our Church had before been wel- 
 comed." [Christian Journal for 1830.] In the Bishop's 
 
I02 THE CHURCH 
 
 address to the annual Convention of this Diocese in 1830, Bishop 
 Brownell gives a report of this visitation. In his address to 
 the Convention in October, 1835, he states that the Diocese of 
 Alabama was placed under his charge several years ago, and 
 refers to attending the annual Convention of that Diocese at 
 Tuscaloosa, in January, 1835, and performing Episcopal func- 
 tions. In his Address to the annual Convention of this Diocese 
 in 1845, he refers to the twenty-five years of his Episcopate 
 with a summary of ordinations and confirmations, and adds — 
 " in my Visitation in the Southwestern States, I have Conse- 
 crated two Churches in Kentucky, four in Mississippi, two in 
 Louisiana and two in Alabama, and have confirmed 245 persons 
 in those States." 
 
 Bishop Brownell presided over the General Convention at 
 New York in 1853, being then the senior Bishop, instead of the 
 youngest Bishop, as he was in 1829. 
 
 For other historical matter we refer to the " Records of 
 Convocation ", printed by order of the Convention 1904, with 
 many valuable historical notices by the Rev. Joseph Hooper, 
 M.A,, of Durham, and to the Journals of the Convention from 
 1792 to date. A list of parishes in this Diocese with dates of 
 organization may be found in the Journal for 1878, also in 1891, 
 to which is added, in each case, the date when the present 
 church building was used. That of Christ Church, West 
 Haven, was first used in 1740, and in 1906 was the oldest in 
 Connecticut. In the Journal of 1896, p. 179, is an account of 
 extinct parishes ; of the Ancient records, in the Journal for 
 1897, p. 175 ; of the changes in parish names, in the Journal 
 for 1900, p. 112; of the growth of the Diocese, in the Journal 
 for 1901, p. 2; and a list of all the Deputies from Connecticut 
 to the General Convention is in the Journal for 1904. 
 
 And it may be of interest to turn to the Journal of 1905 and 
 compare its list of two hundred and eleven clergy, besides the 
 Bishop, and a total of just exactly that number of places of 
 worship in this Diocese, with the fourteen clergy of 1783 with 
 no Bishop and about forty-five parishes ; or with the following 
 list of twenty-five Connecticut clergy from the Journal of the 
 Triennial Convention of 1799, when there were about sixty 
 parishes. 
 
IN CONNECTICUT. IO3 
 
 The list is as follows: 
 
 The Right Rev. Abraham Jarvis, D.D., Bishop. 
 
 Rev. Jeremiah Learning, residing at New Haven. 
 
 Rev. John Bowden, D.D., Principal of the Episcopal 
 Academy at Cheshire. 
 
 Rev. Richard Mansfield, D.D., Rector of Christ Church, at 
 Derby, and of the Churches of Oxford and Great Hill. 
 
 Rev. Bela Hubbard, Trinity Church, New Haven, and Christ 
 Church, West Haven. 
 
 Rev. John Tyler, Christ Church, Norwich. 
 
 Rev. Daniel Fogg, Rector of Trinity Church, Pomphret. 
 
 Rev. William Smith, D.D., Rector of St. Paul's Church, 
 Norwalk. 
 
 Rev. Philo Shelton, Rector of Trinity Church, Stratfield, St. 
 John's, Fairfield, and a Church in Weston. 
 
 Rev. Ashbel Baldwin, Rector of Christ Church, Stratford, 
 and Trinity Church, Trumbull. 
 
 Rev. Chauncey Prindle, Rector of Christ Church, Water- 
 town, and St. Peter's, Plymouth. 
 
 Rev. Reuben Ives, Rector of St. Peter's Church, Cheshire, 
 and the Churches at Hamden and Southington. 
 
 Rev. Tilotson Brownson, Rector of St. Peter's Church, 
 Waterbury, and the Churches at Salem. 
 
 Rev. Truman Marsh, Rector of St. John's Church, New 
 Milford, and the Churches of Roxbury and New Preston. 
 
 Rev. Ambrose Todd, Rector of St. Andrew's Church, Syms- 
 bury, and St. Peter's Church, Granby. 
 
 Rev. Solomon Blakesley, Rector of St. Stephen's Church in 
 East Haddara. 
 
 Rev. Seth Hart, Rector of St. Paul's Church, Wallingford, 
 and a Church in Berlin. (Christ Church, Worthington.) 
 
 Rev. Charles Seabury, Rector of St. James's Church, New 
 London. 
 
 Rev. Smith Miles, Rector of the Churches at Chatham and 
 Middle Haddam. 
 
 Rev. David Butler, Rector of Christ Church, Reading, and 
 the Church at Ridgefield. 
 
 Rev. Alexander V. Griswold, Rector of St. Matthew's 
 Church, Bristol, (East Plymouth,) St. Mark's, Harwinton, 
 and a Church in Northfield. 
 
I04 THE CHURCH 
 
 Rev. William Green, Rector of St, John's, Seabrook. 
 
 Rev. Calvin White, Deacon, St. John's Church, Stamford, 
 and a Church at Horseneck. 
 
 Rev. Evan Rogers, Deacon, the Churches of Hebron and 
 Pomphret. 
 
 Rev. Bethel Judd, Deacon. 
 
 The names of the Rev. Daniel Burhans, D.D., Rector of 
 Trinity Church, Newtown, and John Callahan, Deacon, should 
 be added, to make the list complete. 
 
IN CONNECTICUT. I05 
 
 THE BISHOPS OF CONNECTICUT 
 
 BRIEF MENTION 
 
 The Right Reverend Samuel Seabury, D.D, 
 
 The first American Bishop and first Bishop of Connecticut, 
 
 for eleven years, three months and eleven days. Consecrated 
 
 Nov. 14, 1784; died Feb. 25, 1796. 
 
 The Right Reverend Abraham Jarvis, D.D. 
 
 The eighth American Bishop and second Bishop of Con- 
 necticut, for fifteen years, six months and twelve days. Conse- 
 crated Oct. 18, 1797; died May 13, 1813. 
 
 The Right Reverend John Henry Hobart, D.D. 
 
 The eleventh American Bishop and third Bishop of New 
 York. Consecrated May 29, 181 1; died Sept. 12, 1830. Act- 
 ing Bishop of Connecticut for three years and ten days, from 
 Oct. 17, 1816, to Oct. 27, 1819. 
 
 The Right Reverend Thomas Church Brownell, D.D. 
 
 The nineteenth American Bishop and third Bishop of Con- 
 necticut, for forty-five years, two months and ten days. Con- 
 secrated Oct. 27, 1819; died Jan. 13, 1865. 
 
 The Right Reverend John Williams, D.D. 
 
 The fifty-fourth American Bishop and fourth Bishop of Con- 
 necticut, for forty-seven years, three months and eight days, 
 being Assistant Bishop for the first thirteen years. Conse- 
 crated Oct. 29, 1851 ; died Feb. 7, 1899. 
 
 The Right Reverend Chauncey Bunce Brewster, D.D. 
 
 The one hundred and eighty-third American Bishop and 
 fifth Bishop of Connecticut, being Bishop Coadjutor the first 
 year of his episcopate. Consecrated Oct. 28, 1897, one hundred 
 years after the consecration of the second Bishop of Con- 
 necticut. 
 
Io6 THE CHURCH 
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES 
 
 The Right Reverend Samuel Seabury^ D.D. 
 
 Samuel, the second son of Samule and Abigail, (Mumford,) 
 Seabury, was born at North Groton, (now Ledyard,) Con- 
 necticut, on November 30, 1729; died Feb. 25, 1796, in the 
 sixty-seventh year of his age. Early in life he married a Miss 
 Hicks of New York, who died before 1784 and he did not 
 marry again.. At the time of his birth his father was officiating 
 as a licentiate of the " Standing Order " in the meeting-house 
 of the Second Ecclesiastical Society of Groton located in North 
 Groton, but soon after conformed to the Church of England, 
 was ordained in England and became the first incumbent of 
 St. James's Church, New London. The future bishop was 
 educated by his father and in the common schools of the town 
 until his father's removal to Hempstead, Long Island, in 1742. 
 He entered Yale College in 1744, and was graduated with honor 
 in 1748. Mr. Seabury was sent by his father to Huntington, 
 Long Island, as "catechist" in 1748, in which position he was 
 confirmed by the Venerable Society with a salary of ten pounds 
 sterling per annum. He commenced thfe study of medicine 
 while at Huntington and in 1752 went to Edinburgh to continue 
 his medical course until of age to present himself to the Bishop 
 of London for ordination. 
 
 He was made deacon in the Chapel of Fulham Palace on St. 
 Thomas's Day, Dec. 21, 1753, by the Rt. Rev. John Thomas, 
 Bishop of Lincoln, acting for the infirm Bishop of London. 
 Dr'. Thomas Sherlock. He was ordained priest in the same 
 chapel on Sunday, December 23, 1753, by the Rt. Rev. Richard 
 Osbaldiston, Bishop of Carlisle. 
 
 He was immediately appointed by the Propagation Society to 
 the mission of Christ Church, New Brunswick, N. J. In 1757 
 he went to Grace Church, Jamaica, from which he removed in 
 1766 to the rectorship of St. Peter's Church, Westchester 
 County, N. Y. To add to his small income, he opened while at 
 Westchester a classical school. 
 
 As the Revolution approached, with his friends Dr. Chandler, 
 Dr. Inglis, and the Hon. Isaac Wilkins, he allied himself with 
 the cause of the united British Empire, which to his mind 
 
,*MA 
 
 •*,„ffi^ ' 
 
 '.'<"! 
 
 RT. REV. SAMUEL SEABURY, D.D. 
 
IN CONNECTICUT. 107 
 
 included the welfare of the church of England, and wrote 
 strongly in its favor. His "Letters of a Westchester Farmer" 
 are an excellent specimen of his style in political controversy. 
 He was also for several years the Secretary of the Voluntary 
 Conventions of the Clergy of New York and New Jersey, which 
 some from Connecticut occasionally attended. 
 
 He was roughly treated by the patriots in his neighborhood, 
 compelled at various times to conceal himself and on one occa- 
 sion was taken to New Haven and treated with much indignity. 
 Upon his release from confinement he returned to Westchester, 
 but was soon obliged, early in 1776, to close the churches in 
 his parish and join the numerous loyalists in the city of New 
 York. After the departure of General Washington from Man- 
 hattan Island in September, 1776, he officiated, in turn with 
 other clergymen who had left their parishes, for the refugees 
 in the old City Hall on Wall Street. In 1778 he was appointed 
 to the charge of St. Andrew's Church, Staten Island, but found 
 it unsafe to take up his residence there. 
 
 His support for seven years came from the stipend of fifty 
 pounds a year from the Venerable Society, the practice of medi- 
 cine, and his chaplaincy of the Royal American Regiment of 
 Colonel Edmund Fanning. He was made a Doctor in Divinity 
 by Oxford University in 1778. With his election and accept- 
 ance of the Bishopric of Connecticut came a new period in Dr. 
 Seabury's life. He went to England in July, 1783, in the 
 flagship of Admiral Digby. His noble and unceasing eflforts 
 to induce the Bishops in England to rise above political and 
 traditional precedents and consecrate him under a special act 
 of Parliament, form a chapter of pathetic interest in our annals. 
 In the summer of 1784, he made a formal application to the 
 Bishops of the Church in Scotland to consecrate him. Upon 
 their favorable answer he journeyed to Aberdeen and was con- 
 secrated a Bishop in the Church of God, in Bishop Skinner's 
 chapel in Long Acre, Aberdeen on Sunday, November 14, 1784, 
 by the Primus, Dr. Robert Kilgour of Aberdeen, Dr. Arthur 
 Petrie of Moray and Ross, and Dr. John Skinner, Coadjutor 
 Bishop of Aberdeen. He returned to London immediately 
 after and sailed for America in March, 1785. He spent some 
 weeks among relatives in Nova Scotia and arrived at Newport, 
 R. I., on June 20, 1785. 
 
Io8 THE CHURCH 
 
 The Right Reverend Abraham Jarvis, D.D. 
 
 Abraham, the sixth son and ninth child of Captain Samuel 
 and Naomi, (Brush,) Jarvis, was bom at Norwalk, Conn., on 
 May 5, 1739; died May 3, 1813, nearly seventy-four years of 
 age. Married May 25, 1766, Ann, daughter of Samuel Farmar 
 of New York City. She died at Cheshire, Conn., Nov. 4, 1801, 
 and he married, second, July 4, 1806, Mrs. Lucy, widow of 
 Nathaniel Lewis of Philadelphia. He was a born Episcopalian, 
 his father having conformed to the Church of England two 
 years before the Bishop was born. He was carefully trained 
 in the district school and at home, and then placed under the 
 tuition of the Rev. Noah Wells, the Congregational minister of 
 Stratford, to be prepared for college. He became a student at 
 Yale when eighteen and was graduated with honor in 1761. 
 
 He went immediately after to Middletown to officiate as lay 
 reader in Christ Church. He also pursued by himself a course 
 in theology, presumably set forth for him by the learned Dr. 
 Samuel Johnson, 
 
 About 1762 it becoming necessary to leave his work to be 
 inoculated for the small pox, he resided for several months at 
 Elizabethtown, N. J., in the family of the Rev. Dr. Thomas 
 Bradbury Chandler, the well-read theologian and acute pleader 
 for an American Episcopate. Under him he probably com- 
 pleted his course in theology. 
 
 In the fall of 1763, in company with his intimate friend, Bela 
 Hubbard, and William Walter of Roxbury, Mass., he sailed for 
 England to seek holy orders. His expenses were defrayed by 
 a subscription of the members of the Middletown parish. He 
 was made deacon in " the royal Chapel of St. James, West- 
 minster," on Sunday, February 5, 1764, by the Rt. Rev. Fred- 
 erick Keppel, Bishop of Exeter. 
 
 He was ordained priest in " the parish Church of St. James, 
 Westminster ", on Sunday, February 19, 1764, by the Rt. Rev. 
 Charles Lyttleton, Bishop of Carlisle. 
 
 Both of these ordinations, at which his companions also were 
 ordained, were by special commission from the aged and feeble 
 Bishop of London, Dr. Richard Osbaldiston, who, as had his 
 predecessors, exercised jurisdiction over the American Colonies. 
 Mr. Jarvis sailed for America in April and was again at work in 
 
RT. REV. ABRAHAM JARVIS, D.D. 
 
IN CONNECTICUT. 109 
 
 June. He had been duly chosen as Rector of Christ Church, 
 Middletown. An unusual salary of seventy pounds sterling was 
 pledged to him by the parish. For some reason not now to be 
 ascertained, the Venerable Society declined to continue the 
 stipend of twenty pounds which had been allowed to the Rev. 
 Ichabod Camp, the first Rector and Missionary. Mr. Jarvis 
 became a true pastor, not only for the people in Middletown, but 
 in all the surrounding country. He greatly encouraged the 
 small band of Churchmen in Hartford by his presence, his ser- 
 vices and his advice. There would have been rapid growth 
 in Hartford had the suggestion to make Middletown and Hart- 
 ford a mission under Mr. Jarvis met with the approval of the 
 authorities in England. 
 
 His energy and success as a parish priest are shown by a 
 memorandum made a few years after his ordination, in which 
 three hundred and sixty-five souls, of whom one hundred and 
 fifty were communicants, are recorded as under his charge. 
 With the continued regard and affection of his parishioners, he 
 served them in holy things for thirty-five years. 
 
 Upon the death of Bishop Seabury, at the special Convention 
 held in Trinity Church, New Haven, on May 5, 1796, he was 
 chosen Bishop. As there had been a diversity of opinion 
 among the clergy and some opposition by prominent laymen, 
 he immediately declined the election. 
 
 When Dr. Bowden, who in October, 1796, had been elected, 
 finally declined the Episcopate, Mr. Jarvis was unanimously 
 elected at the annual convention held in St. James's Church, 
 Derby, on June 7, 1797. He accepted and was consecrated in 
 Trinity Church, New Haven, on the feast of St. Luke, October 
 18, 1797. The sermon was preached by the Rev. Dr. William 
 Smith, of St. Paul's Church, Norwalk. It is one of the five 
 instances in the history of the American Church when the ser- 
 mon at the consecration of a Bishop has been by a priest. The 
 others are: The Rev. Dr. William Smith, Provost of the Uni- 
 versity of Pennsylvania, preached at the consecration of Dr. 
 Claggett, 1792; Dr. Robert Smith, 1795; and Dr. Bass, 1797. 
 The Rev. Dr. Frederick Beasley preached at the consecration 
 of Mr. Chase in 1819. 
 
 The second Bishop of Connecticut was faithful in his admin- 
 istration of the Diocese and saw a moderate but real growth. 
 7 
 
no THE CHURCH 
 
 During his later years he was afiflicted with asthma and any 
 clerical duty was done with difficulty, but he never allowed his 
 bodily infirmity to interfere with his official and religious obli- 
 gations. In 1799 he removed to Cheshire, where the Episcopal 
 Academy, under Dr. Bowden, was coming into favorable knowl- 
 edge of the people. 
 
 In 1803 Bishop Jarvis removed to New Haven, where he 
 passed the remainder of his days. 
 
 When the present Trinity Church was erected, his body was 
 removed from the public cemetery and buried beneath the 
 chancel. An elegant Gothic monument, with a classic and 
 affectionate Latin inscription written by his son, the distin- 
 guished scholar. Dr. Samuel Farmar Jarvis, adorns the walls 
 of the church. 
 
 These sketches of Bishop Seabury and Bishop Jarvis are 
 mainly taken from the historical notes by the Rev, Joseph 
 Hooper, in the " Records of Convocation." 
 
 The Right Reverend John Henry Hobart, D.D. 
 
 John Henry, son of Capt. Enoch and Hannah, (Pratt,) 
 Hobart, was born at Philadelphia, Pa., Sept. 14, 1775, died 
 Sept. 12, 1830 ; married in the spring of 1800, to Mary Goodwin 
 Chandler, daughter of the Rev. Dr. Thomas Bradbury Chandler, 
 of Elizabethtown, N. J. His father died when he was one year 
 old, so that his early training fell wholly upon his pious and 
 talented mother. He was received into the Episcopal Academy 
 at Philadelphia when he was nine years of age. In 1788 he 
 entered the College of Philadelphia, and in the autumn of 1791 
 was transferred to Princeton College, where he was graduated 
 in 1793, with the highest honors of his class. He was tutor at 
 Princeton 1796- 1798, and studied theology under Bishop White. 
 He was ordained deacon, June 3, 1798, and settled over two 
 small Churches near Philadelphia, Trinity Church at Oxford, 
 and All Saints at Perkiomen, Pa., until 1799, when he had 
 charge of Christ Church, New Brunswick, N. J. In May, 1800, 
 he went to St. George's Church, Hempstead, L. I., but was 
 called to Trinity Church, New York, in September of that year 
 
RT. REV. THOMAS CHURCH BROWNELL, D.D. 
 
IN CONNECTICUT. Ill 
 
 as assistant minister. In 1806 he received the degree of Doctor 
 of Divinity from Union College and in 181 1 he was elected 
 Assistant Bishop of the Diocese of New York. He was conse- 
 crated in Trinity Church, New York, May 29, 181 1, by Bishop 
 White, by whom he had previously been both confirmed and 
 ordained. " He had a mind that never wearied ; he had a nerve 
 that never was relaxed." A long list of his publications may 
 be found in Sprague's " Annals of the American Pulpit," 
 Vol. V. 
 
 The Right Reverend Thomas Church Brownell, D.D., 
 LL.D. 
 
 Thomas Church, eldest son of Sylvester and Mercy, 
 (Church,) Brownell, born at Westport, Mass., Oct. 19, 1779; 
 died at Hartford, Conn., Jan. 13, 1865. Married Aug. 6, 
 1811, Charlotte, daughter of Tertullus Dickinson of Lansing- 
 burgh, N. Y., by the Rev. Dr. Butler, Rector of St. Paul's 
 Church, Troy, N. Y. She was an Episcopalian, and thus by 
 this marriage he was for the first time brought into intimate 
 relations with Episcopalians. At the age of fifteen he was a 
 teacher in one of the common schools. After a preliminary 
 education at the Bristol Academy, Taunton, Mass., he entered 
 Brown University but changed to Union College in 1802, where 
 he was graduated with highest honors in 1804. In 1805 he was 
 tutor in Greek and Latin, and in 1806 professor of logic and 
 belles leitres. He studied theology while in College under the 
 Rev. Dr. Eliphalet Nott, who became president of Union Col- 
 lege in 1804, and made young Brownell tutor and professor as 
 before stated. About 1809 he was appointed professor of 
 Chemistry and Mineralogy with leave to spend a year in Europe 
 in the study of chemistry and other sciences. He had intended 
 to enter the Congregational ministry, but being convinced of 
 the historical and scriptural grounds of Episcopacy he was bap- 
 tized by the Rev. Cyrus Stebbins of Schenectady, N. Y., Sept. 
 5, 1813, and shortly after confirmed. He was ordained deacon 
 by Bishop Hobart, April 10, 1816, and priest by the same Bishop, 
 Aug. 4, 1816. In 1814, he was appointed professor of rhetoric 
 and chemistry at Union College. After being made deacon, in 
 1816, he was missionary in Schenectady, and its vicinity, and in 
 
112 THE CHURCH 
 
 1817 he became assistant minister of Trinity Church, New 
 York, where he remained until he was elected Bishop of Con- 
 necticut in 1819, but a little over three years after he was made 
 Deacon, For many years he was President of the Retreat for 
 the Insane at Hartford. The last twelve years of his long epis- 
 copate he was, by seniority, the Presiding Bishop of the Church 
 in America. For other data, see the preceding article on the 
 Church in Connecticut. Besides the Prayer Book there men- 
 tioned, he published " Selections on the Religion of the Heart 
 and Life ", the " Christian's Walk and Consolation ", an 
 abridgement of an " English Commentary on the New Testa- 
 ment " and the " Errors of the Times ", being his charge to the 
 clergy in 1843. 
 
 Dr. Beardsley says : " His equability, his sagacity, the 
 impartiality of his determinations, the largeness of his views, 
 the avoidance of needless collisions, the decision of his conduct, 
 when decision became needful, had their result in the strong and 
 united and confiding Diocese. He sought no constrained uni- 
 formity. Pie entertained no fanciful ideal. He leaned towards 
 no extreme tendency. He was steadfast, because his mind was 
 clear. He brushed away all that was not essential to any ques- 
 tion or purpose, or smiled and suffered it to pass by. He 
 recognized the right of all. No one had cause to suppose him- 
 self wronged with him by any prejudice; and when 'swift to 
 hear, slow to speak, and very slow to wrath', he spoke, at length, 
 the Church listened and was satisfied." 
 
 A colossal statue of Bishop Brownell, the gift of his son- 
 in-law, Gordon W. Burnham, stands on the campus of Trinity 
 College. 
 
 The Right Reverend John Williams, D.D., LL.D. 
 
 John, son of Ephraim and Emily, (Trowbridge,) Williams, 
 was born at North Deerfield, Mass., Aug. 30, 181 7. His father 
 was a lawyer and author of the first volume of the Massachu- 
 setts Reports. His youthful education was in his native town 
 and his Unitarian parents trained him in that faith. Later he 
 attended an academy of high reputation at Northfield, and 
 entered Harvard College in 1831. After two years he changed to 
 Trinity College, Hartford, where he was graduated in 1835. His 
 
RT. REV. JOHN WILLIAMS, D.D. 
 
IN CONNECTICUT. I 13 
 
 discussions at Harvard with a friend and a careful study of the 
 Book of Coinmon Prayer led him to the Episcopal Church and 
 caused him to transfer to a Church College with the consent of 
 his father. Having become a candidate for noly orders, he 
 entered the General Theological Seminary at New York in 1835, 
 but was called home by the illness of his father, with whom he 
 remained until his death. He completed his theological studies 
 with the Rev. S. F. Jarvis, D.D., of Middletown, Conn., and 
 was ordained deacon by Bishop Brownell, in Christ Church, 
 Middletown, Sept. 2, 1838, and priest by the same Bishop in the 
 same church, Sept. 26, 1841. He was tutor in Trinity College, 
 1837 to 1840, after which he spent about a year traveling with 
 his mother in England and on the Continent. For some months 
 he assisted Bishop Luscombe at the Chapel of the British 
 Embassy in Paris. He was assistant minister in Christ Church, 
 Middletown, 1841 to 1842, and Rector of St. George's, Schenec- 
 tady, N. Y., 1842 to 1848. He was elected President of Trinity 
 College and removed to Hartford in 1848, holding that office 
 until 1853. 
 
 He was elected Assistant Bishop of Connecticut at St. John's 
 church, Waterbury, June 11, 1851, and was consecrated in St. 
 John's Church, Hartford, Oct. 29, 185 1, by Bishops Brownell, 
 Hopkins, DeLancey, Eastburn, Chase, Henshaw and Burgess. 
 
 He was Assessor to the Presiding Bishop and Chairman of 
 the House of Bishops by election from Oct. 26, 1883, imtil he 
 became Presiding Bishop of the Church on the death of Bishop 
 Alfred Lee of Delaware, April 12, 1887. 
 
 In addition to these other duties, he was a Junior Fellow of 
 Trinity College, 1845 to 1849; Professor of History, 1849 to 
 1853; Lecturer on History, 1853 to 1892; Trustee, since 1848; 
 Visitor, since 1853; Vice Chancellor and Chancellor, since 1865. 
 He was the founder of Berkeley Divinity School, Middletown, 
 in 1854, and was its Dean and Professor of Doctrinal Theology 
 and Liturgies until his death. 
 
 He was made Doctor of Divinity by Union College, 1847; 
 Trinity, 1849; Columbia, 1851, and Yale, 1883, and made 
 Doctor of Laws by Hobart College in 1870. 
 
 Entered into rest from his home in Middletown, February 7, 
 1899, aged 81 years, 5 months and 8 days, and was buried in the 
 Indian Hill Cemetery, Middletown, Feb. 10, 1899. 
 
114 THE CHURCH 
 
 We quote from the " Commemorative and Biographical 
 Record of Middlesex County," as follows : 
 
 " Bishop Williams was famous as a bishop and as a wit. His 
 humor was of a character that was subtle, and his manner digni- 
 fied, yet gentle, kindly and lovable. His personality attracted 
 to him the love of his people, and to them there will never be 
 another Bishop Williams. He was a great and good man." 
 
 The Right Reverend Chauncey Bunce Brewster, D.D. 
 
 Chauncey Bunce, the eldest son of the Rev. Joseph and Sarah, 
 (Bunce,) Brewster, was born on September 5, 1848, at Wind- 
 ham, Conn. His father was then Rector of St. Paul's Church 
 in that pleasant village, but soon after of St. Paul's, Walling- 
 ford, whence he removed to New Haven, and became Rector of 
 Christ Church, in which position he remained highly esteemed 
 and beloved for nearly thirty years. The Rev. Joseph Brewster 
 ended his useful life on Nov. 20, 1895, during his incumbency 
 of St. Michael's Church, Brooklyn, N. Y. 
 
 It is an interesting and unusual fact that he gave three sons to 
 the ministry. The family is one that has been highly honored 
 in New England, and especially in Connecticut. It can trace 
 its ancestry directly to the elder of the Plymouth Colony, 
 William Brewster. 
 
 After a careful preparation in the Hopkins Grammar School, 
 Chauncey Brewster entered Yale College, graduating with 
 honors in 1868 and having the distinction of being class orator. 
 During the collegiate year 1870-71 he was tutor at Yale College. 
 He was well trained in the studies necessary for the holy minis- 
 try at Berkeley Divinity School, Middletown, Conn. He was 
 made deacon in the Church of the Holy Trinity, Middletown, 
 on Wednesday, May 29, 1872, by the Rt. Rev. Dr. John Wil- 
 liams. He spent his diaconate as assistant to the Rev. Dr. 
 Deshon at St. Andrew's Church, Meriden, Conn. On May 30, 
 1873, he was ordained priest in St. Andrew's, Meriden, by 
 Bishop Williams, and soon after accepted the rectorship of the 
 historic parish of Christ Church, Rye, N. Y., where he made 
 full proof of his ministry. 
 
 In 1 88 1 he became Rector of Christ Church, Detroit, Mich. 
 Besides his round of parish duty he was called to occupy several 
 
RT. REV. CHAUNCEY BUNCE BREWSTER, D.D. 
 
IN CONNECTICUT. I 15 
 
 diocesan positions of importance, being a member of the Stand- 
 ing Committee and deputy from that Diocese to the General 
 Convention of 1883. 
 
 In 1885 he accepted a call to Grace Church, Baltimore, which 
 had been served by such men as Bishop Atkinson and Bishop 
 Coxe. His last parish was Grace Church, Brooklyn Heights. 
 In the Diocese of Long Island he has been President of the 
 Standing Committee, Chancellor of the Cathedral of the Incar- 
 nation, a Trustee of the Church Charity Foundation, and Chair- 
 man of other boards and committees. He was a deputy to the 
 General Convention of 1892 and also to that of 1895. He was 
 by the General Convention of 1895 appointed on the Commis- 
 sion on Church Unity, and has been for some years a member 
 of the Board of Managers of the Domestic and Foreign Mis- 
 sionary Society. 
 
 His election by the Diocesan Convention at St. John's, Water- 
 bury, on Tuesday, June 8, 1897, called him back to serve his 
 native State as Bishop Coadjutor. He received the degree of 
 Master of Arts in course from Yale, and that of Doctor in 
 Divinity from Trinity College in 1897. 
 
 Dr. Brewster has written various review articles and is the 
 author of a series of Good Friday addresses, entitled " The Key 
 of Life," published in 1895. 
 
 The foregoing sketch was prepared by the Rev. Joseph 
 Hooper and published in the " Jarvis Centenary," 1897. A 
 recent work of Bishop Brewster is worthy of special mention. 
 It is entitled " Aspects of Revelation, being the Baldwin Lec- 
 tures for 1900. By Chauncey B. Brewster, D.D., Bishop of 
 Connecticut." These lectures were delivered at the University 
 of Michigan and published by Longmans, Green & Co., New 
 York, 1901. 300 octavo pages. 
 
Il6 THE CHURCH 
 
 SYNOPSIS OF CONNECTICUT LAWS RELATING 
 TO ECCLESIASTICAL MATTERS 
 
 1636-1821, 
 
 Compiled from Colonial Records and Statute Laws of the 
 Colony and State. 
 
 1636. The Court, April 26, 1636, ratified and confirmed the 
 formation of the Church on the River of Connecticut, composed 
 of members dismissed from the Church at Watertown, Mass. 
 
 1637. Church officers were exempted from military duty 
 March 8, 1637. 
 
 1638-9. The Fundamental Orders of 1638-9, between 
 Windsor, Hartford, and Wethersfield, recite in the preamble, 
 that they confederated " together to maintain and preserve the 
 liberty and purity of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus, which we 
 now profess, as also the discipline of the Churches," but there 
 is not a word in the body of the " Orders " that refers to 
 ecclesiastical affairs. 
 
 1642. Among the capital laws passed Dec. i, 1642, idolatry 
 and blasphemy were punishable with death. This was dropped 
 as to idolatry in the revision of 1784, then changed to whipping 
 on the naked body, not exceeding forty stripes, or sitting in 
 the pillory one hour. 
 
 1644. Minister's support was first provided for Oct. 25, 
 1644, requiring the people to be called together " that every man 
 voluntarily set down what he is willing to allow " ; those refus- 
 ing, to be rated by authority and collected as other debts. 
 
 1650. In 1650, the first code of laws was enacted, but it 
 was over a century and a half before it was printed. It was 
 distributed in manuscript and read at times in various public 
 meetings. Excommunicated persons as well as others were 
 given power to make their wills. The Selectmen were in- 
 structed to " have a vigilant eye over their brethren and neigh- 
 bors " for having their children and servants educated and 
 "once a week at least, catechised in the grounds and principles 
 of religion," and if not, the Selectmen should bind out such 
 children for such instruction. Substantially this law was in 
 force until 1821. 
 
IN CONNECTICUT. II7 
 
 It was forbidden to .behave contemptuously " towards the 
 Word or the Messengers thereof" ; the penalty for the second 
 offense was a fine of 5 pounds, or to stand two hours in public 
 " upon a Lecture day, with a paper fixed on his breast written 
 with Capital Letters, — an open and obstinate contemner of 
 god's holy ordinances." In force until 1750. 
 
 Wheresoever Gospel Service was held on Sunday, "every 
 person shall duly resort and attend thereto", also on public 
 Fasts and Thankgivings, or be subject to a fine of 5 shillings. 
 The civil authority, until 1750, had power and liberty to see "the 
 rules of Christ's Church observed in every Church according to 
 His Word," and to deal with any Church member "so it be done 
 in a civil and not in an ecclesiastical way," 
 
 All male persons sixteen years old and upwards who did not 
 voluntarily contribute, were taxed for the minister's rate accord- 
 ing to the list of persons and estates, (except Magistrates and 
 Elders,) until 1821, although voluntary contributions were 
 dispensed with in 1697, and after 1799 the polls or persons of 
 those under 21 years of age were put in the list at half the 
 value of adults. 
 
 1656, 7 and 8. In October, 1656, towns and persons were 
 forbidden to entertain, or unnecessarily speak to " Quakers, 
 Ranters, Adamites, or such like notorious heritiques," under 
 penalty of 5 pounds per week, and the magistrates had power 
 to send them to prison for securing them until they could con- 
 veniently be sent out of the jurisdiction. In 1657, the books or 
 manuscripts of the Quakers were also suppressed and turned 
 over to the Elders, or by a later act, to the Court. In Oct., 1658, 
 Magistrates had power to punish all heretics by banishment or 
 corporal punishment, also to inflict the same punishment on any 
 one instrumental in bringing such persons into the Colony. In 
 July, 1675, the penalty for non-attendance of public worship 
 was suspended as to Quakers ; also the imprisonment of them, 
 provided they do not gather in assemblies nor make disturb- 
 ance. In May, 1706, the law against heretics was repealed. 
 
 In March, 1657-8 all persons were prohibited from embody- 
 ing themselves " into Church estate without consent of the 
 General Court and approbation of the neighboring Churches." 
 This was in force until 1750. Prior to 1657 the Churches and 
 
Il8 THE CHURCH 
 
 towns seem to have grown up without special legislation and 
 without clearly defined distinctions between the Church and the 
 Town. In 1643 when the Assembly acted upon certain troubles 
 between Mr. Smith and the people of Wethersfield, they ordered 
 a copy of the report sent to Mr. Smith and to the " Towne " 
 instead of to the Church. Later they imposed a fine of 10 
 pounds on any one who should repeat any complaint against 
 Mr. Smith of which he had been cleared by the Court. After 
 1657, special acts were passed for the formation of new 
 Churches in the respective towns, and when there were more 
 than one Church in one town, the bounds of each parish were 
 generally fixed by the Assembly. 
 
 The act of March 8, 1657-8, also forbade the people from 
 entertaining or attending any ministry or church administration 
 " disinct and separate from and in opposition to that which is 
 . . . dispensed by the settled and approved minister of the 
 place, except it be by approbation of this Court and the neigh- 
 boring churches." Provided ' this act shall not hinder any pri- 
 vate meetings of Godly Persons . . . with the allowance of 
 the settled minister." This law was intended only to regulate 
 churches of the Standing Order and was passed especially for 
 suppressing the seceding Congregationalists of Hartford. In 
 so far as it could be construed to apply to any other denomin- 
 ation, it was practically annulled by the toleration acts of 1665 
 and 1669. It was in force until 1750. 
 
 1662. In October, 1662, it was declared that all laws and 
 orders of the Colony stand in full force " unless any be cross to 
 ye Tenor of our charter." 
 
 1664. Oct. 13, 1664, upon a writing from "several persons 
 in the Colony, (seven residents of Hartford and Windsor, call- 
 ing themselves members of the Church of England,) that they 
 are not entertained in Church fellowship, the Court recom- 
 mended the ministers and Churches to entertain persons " who 
 are of an honest and Godly conversation", by an " explicit 
 covenant, and that they have their children baptised." A copy 
 of this recommendation was sent to every minister in the 
 Colony. [Stiles' Windsor, Vol. i, p. 196.] 
 
 After a long controversy, it was ordered in March, 1657-8. 
 that all prosecutions cease between the Church in Hartford and 
 the withdrawers until the matters in controversy are brought to 
 
IN CONNECTICUT. II9 
 
 an issue in a way that the Court shall determine. The assembly 
 of New England Elders at Boston, 1657, approved of the half- 
 way covenant as did also the Boston Synod of 1862, but in 1664 
 is the first specific reference to it noticed in the Colonial Records. 
 The half-way covenant was an issue at Hartford in 1666, being 
 opposed by Mr. Whiting and his followers, and Mr. Whiting's 
 petition "for a distinct walking" and to "practice the Congre- 
 gational way without disturbance " was granted in October, 
 1669. Numerous other matters relating to special legislation 
 for particular churches were from time to time before the Gen- 
 eral Assembly. 
 
 1665. In April, 1665, it was enacted that all persons of civil 
 lives may freely enjoy the liberty of their consciences and thfe 
 worship of God in that way which they think best, provided that 
 this liberty tend not to the disturbance of the public, or mainten- 
 ance of the ministry. Omitted from the revision of 1672. 
 
 1667. In May, 1667, Indians were forbidden to work or play 
 on the Sabbath under a penalty of 5 shillings or sit in the public 
 stocks one hour, but it was a year later when this provision was 
 extended to all, at which time the general law against work, 
 play, travel, etc., on the Sabbath, Fast and Thanksgiving days, 
 or staying outside of the meeting-house during service, was 
 passed, and with various changes was continued in the revision 
 of 182 1. The Sabbath was defined as from sunset on Saturday 
 until midnight on Sunday. 
 
 1668. In October, 1668, the law as to attending public wor- 
 ship was amended so that the judge might find the accused 
 guilty unless " he make it appear that he did attend ... or 
 was necessarily detained therefrom." This was dropped in the 
 revision of 1702 but was reenacted in May, 1712, and dropped 
 again in 1750. 
 
 1669. A new act relating to Dissenters, (non-Congregation- 
 alists,) was enacted in May, 1669, " for the honor of God, wel- 
 fare of the Churches and preservation of the public peace so 
 greatly hazarded", whereas the profession and practice of the 
 Congregational Churches was approved "until better light in an 
 orderly way doth appear ", but as others are otherwise per- 
 suaded, the Court declared that all persons " orthodox and 
 sound in the fundamentals of Christian religion mav have allow- 
 
I20 THE CHURCH 
 
 ance of their perswasion and profession in church ways or 
 assembHes without disturbance." This was in force until 1702. 
 
 1672. The substitution of the Charter for the Fundamental 
 Orders and the admission of New Haven into the Colony made 
 a new code of laws necessary. It was ordered in 1671 and com- 
 pleted in 1672. It was printed in Cambridge by Samuel Green 
 in 1673, ^"d was the first printed laws of the Colony. On the 
 title page were the Scripture texts. 
 
 "Let every Soul be subject unto the Higher Powers ; for 
 there is no Power but of God." 
 
 "Whosoever therefore resisteth the power resisteth the Ordi- 
 nance of God : and they that resist shall receive to them- 
 selves Damnation." 
 
 New Haven Laws. 
 
 The New Haven Colony had very brief laws. Those only 
 who desired to be admitted into the Church were admitted as 
 planters, and none but Church members could vote or hold 
 office. October, 1639, it was voted "that the word of God shall 
 be the only rule to be attended unto in ordering the affairs of 
 government in this plantation." 
 
 The revision of 1672, with the exception of omissions, made 
 but little changes in the ecclesiastical laws. If any society 
 failed to allow suitable maintenance for the minister, the County 
 Court would order what the maintenance should be. 
 
 1676. In May, 1676, family prayer and worship was recom- 
 mended, and the ministers and Selectmen were ordered to see 
 that it was performed in every family. If any were obstinate 
 and refractory, the grand jury were to present them to the next 
 Court for punishment, or to be bound over to good behavior. 
 In force until 1702. 
 
 1694. The ordained ministers of the Colony in October, 
 1694, were given permission to perform the marriage service, 
 but in 1702, they could do so only in the town where the minis- 
 ter was settled. 
 
 1697. In May, 1697, it was provided that if any town or 
 plantation was without a minister for any year or years, the 
 minister's salary should be collected and kept subject to the 
 order of the Court. 
 
IN CONNECTICUT. 12 1 
 
 1702. A new revision of the laws was made in 1702, pro- 
 viding that if no agreement was made with the minister or he is 
 aggrieved by too scanty allowance, he may apply to the General 
 Assembly, who will fix his salary. Boarders, sojourners, and 
 young persons living in any family were subject to a fine of 5 
 shillings for not attending private worship in those families. 
 The Sabbath laws and laws for minister's support were both 
 continued in substance until 1821. 
 
 1706. In October, 1706, ministers were exempted from 
 taxes and not to be set in the list, and in October, 1737, this was 
 extended to all members of the minister's family. The law 
 was changed in the revision of 1821 so as to exempt only the 
 polls of the ministers. 
 
 1708. In May, 1708, the majority present at any town or 
 society meeting were given power to call and settle a minister 
 who shall be the minister of such town or society and all agree- 
 ments with him shall be binding. 
 
 In May, 1708, " being sensible of the defects of the discipline 
 of the Churches," the Saybrook Convention was ordered to be 
 composed of "the Reverend Ministers delegates from the 
 elders and messengers of the Churches in this government." 
 In October of that year, the Assembly declared " their great 
 approbation of such a happy agreement, and do ordain that all 
 the churches within this government that are or shall be thus 
 united in doctrine, worship and discipline be ", owned and 
 acknowledged established by law. Provided that nothing 
 herein shall hinder any Church or society allowed by law who 
 soberly differ from the united churches from exercising worship 
 and discipline in their own way. The Churches thus established 
 under the Saybrook platform provided for an explicit covenant 
 to be acknowledged by those who were not members in full 
 communion, so that their children could be baptized. 
 
 The rights of Dissenters having been dropped from the revi- 
 sion of 1702, it was enacted in May, 1708, "for the ease of such 
 as soberly dissent from the way of worship and ministry estab- 
 lished" by law ; That, if any persons shall at the County Court 
 of that country they belong to, qualify themselves according to an 
 act made in the first year of the late King William and Queen 
 Mary, granting liberty of worshipping God in a way separate 
 
122 THE CHURCH 
 
 from that which is estabhshed by law, they may enjoy the same 
 without any let, hindrance and molestation whatsoever, but are 
 not excused from paying minister's rates. This was repealed 
 in May, 1743, when a substitute therefor was enacted. 
 
 1709. In October, 1709, single persons, boarders, and 
 sojourners, were forbidden to meet in companies on Sunday or 
 Lecture day evenings, except for ''religious occasions," under 
 a penalty of five shillings. 
 
 1715. In 1715, the Selectmen were to see that every house- 
 holder had a Bible and large families a number of Bibles, ortho- 
 dox catechism and other good books of practical godliness, and 
 if this order was neglected, to make return to the next Court 
 who may deal with the accused according to the law relating to 
 the education of children. In force until 182 1. 
 
 1721. In May, 1721, the laws relating to Sabbath keeping 
 and attending public worship were changed to require the 
 attendance to be " in some congregation by law allowed." A 
 fine of 20 shillings was imposed on those who should assemble 
 in any public meeting house without the consent and allowance 
 of the minister and congregation. A fine of 5 shillings was 
 imposed for unnecessarily leaving home on the Lord's Day 
 except to worship God "in some place by law allowed for that 
 end." In October, 1721 each town was to appoint annually 
 two Tything men for each parish. In force until 1821. 
 
 1723. In 1723, when the Baptists were increasing and 
 irregular preachers took upon them to administer the sacrament 
 of baptism," all persons who neglected public worship on the 
 Lord's Day and formed themselves into separate companies in 
 private houses, were, until 1821, subject to a fine of 20 shillings, 
 and until 1750, if any person not a lawful or allowed minister 
 shall administer or make show of the "Holy Sacraments" they 
 were subject to a fine of 10 pounds. 
 
 1727. The first mention of the Church of England or Epis- 
 copal Church is in the act of May 11, 1727, when it was enacted 
 as to all persons, including Episcopalians, living in the bounds 
 of any parish allowed by this Assembly, that they should be 
 taxed alike, and "if it so happen that there be a Society of the 
 Church of England where there is a person in Orders according 
 to the canons of the Church of England settled and abiding 
 
IN CONNECTICUT. I23 
 
 among them and performing divine service so near to any 
 person that hath declared himself of the Church of England, 
 that he can conveniently and doth attend the public worship 
 there ; then the Collectors" shall deliver the taxes collected of 
 such Churchmen to the Church of England ministers, who shall 
 have full power to receive and recover the same. 
 
 Societies of the Church of England " may levy and collect of 
 them who profess and attend as afore said, greater taxes at 
 their own discretion for the support of their Minister." 
 
 "And the Parishioners of the Church of England attending 
 as afore said are hereby excused from paying any taxes for 
 the building of Meeting Houses for the present established 
 Churches of this Government." 
 
 1728. It was enacted in October, 1728, that no person could 
 vote in society meetings, except those persons having a freehold 
 of forty pounds, or that are persons in full communion with 
 the Church. The " or " was changed to " and " in the revision 
 of 1750, and in 1748, and after, Dissenters who exercised their 
 right of exemption from taxes were prohibited from voting in 
 society meetings, except for school purposes. A penalty of 15 
 shillings for violating this law was enacted in 1769. 
 
 1729. In May, 1729, it was enacted that Quakers " who do 
 attend the worship of God " either in the Colony or on the 
 borders thereof and shall produce a certificate of their having 
 joined themselves to their society, shall be excused from con- 
 tributing to the support of the established ministry, or paying 
 any tax for the building of any meeting-house. In October, 
 1729 the same privileges were granted to the "people called 
 Baptist." 
 
 The laws as to taxing Episcopalians, Quakers and Baptists 
 were in force until 1784, when a modified form of law apply- 
 ing to all tolerated Dissenters was enacted. The law as to Epis- 
 copalians, before 1784, was much less liberal than the law as 
 to Baptists and Quakers. 
 
 1735. In May, 1735, the law gave the collectors of the 
 Established Churches the power of constables and after receiv- 
 ing the names and amounts assessed in the society, the collector 
 was given a warrant against every person on the list, which war- 
 rant he could serve in case of necessity. The minister's rates 
 
124 THE CHURCH 
 
 collected by him were paid over directly to the minister. This 
 law was in force until 1821. 
 
 1737. In 1737, an act was passed permitting the Western 
 land fund to be appropriated "to the support of the Gospel 
 Ministry." This was repealed in 1740. A new law on the 
 same subject was passed in 1795. 
 
 1740-42. In October, 1740, " considering the unhappy mis- 
 understandings and divisions", a General Consociation of the 
 Churches of the Colony was ordered to be convened at Guil- 
 ford, at the expense of the Colony. In May, 1742, referring to 
 the endeavor of the said Consociation " to prevent the growing 
 disorders amongst the ministers and churches settled by order 
 of the Assembly", and reciting that divers ministers go into 
 and preach in parishes under the care of other ministers, and 
 also sundry illiterate persons who have no authority whatever, 
 publicly preach and exhort, it was enacted that no licensed 
 minister or any person not a settled and ordained minister go 
 into any parish and hold service without being expressly invited 
 by the minister of the parish or of the congregation, nor meet 
 in any irregular association, under penalty of forfeiting all 
 benefit of the law for minister's support, while the irregular 
 preacher was to be bound over to his peaceable and good 
 behavior to the next County Court. If any foreigner or 
 stranger so offend he shall be sent out of the Colony as a 
 vagrant person. This law was dropped in 1750. 
 
 In October, 1742, ministers that were not educated at Yale 
 or Harvard College, or some other allowed Protestant college 
 or university, were denied the benefit of the laws for the sup- 
 port of the ministry. This law was enacted to be in force four 
 years only. 
 
 1743. The Moravians had a mission among the Indians of 
 Sharon and Kent and were said to have been stirring up discord 
 among the people, whereupon it was enacted in May, 1743, that 
 all foreigners or persons suspected of seditious designs, or of 
 being spies, should be brought before the Governor for exam- 
 ination. 
 
 At the same session, the toleration act of 1708 was repealed, 
 because Congregational Separatists, for whom it was never 
 intended, tried to take the benefit thereof. As a substitute for 
 
IN CONNECTICUT. 1 25 
 
 the repealed act, any of his Majesty's subjects, being Protes- 
 tants, inhabitants of this Colony, and dissenting- from the estab- 
 lished worship, were given permission to ask for privileges in 
 Church ways, and if they had any distinguishing character from 
 Presbyterians or Congregationalists, they " may expect indul- 
 gence of this Assembly." 
 
 In October, 1743, a law was enacted against such vagrant 
 preachers as had been sent out of the Colony and returned 
 again to preach or exhort. This law was dropped in 1750. 
 
 1747. In 1747, it was enacted that when any parish or relig- 
 ious society allowed by law, (those only tolerated by the laws 
 of this Colony and dissenting from us excepted,) shall vote to 
 build a meeting-house, they shall apply to the County Court to 
 fix the place where it shall stand. The clerk of the society was 
 required to report the doings of the society and progress of 
 the building to the County Court. A fine of $134.00 was 
 imposed for building a meeting-house without complying with 
 this act. This law was in force until 182 1. 
 
 1750. Another revision was made 1750, which omitted 
 sundry laws and also enacted a law against the denial of God 
 or the Holy Trinity, punishable by disability to hold office, and 
 for a second offence disability to sue, or be guardian, executor 
 or administrator on any estate. Continued until 1821. Those 
 who profaned the Lord's day or disturbed any congregation 
 allowed for the worship of God, were to " be publicly whipt not 
 exceeding Twenty stripes." The laws relating to attending 
 public worship were amended by a proviso " That this act shall 
 not be taken or construed to hinder the meeting of such Persons 
 upon any Religious Occasion." 
 
 1752. In May, 1752, the Honorable Society in Scotland for 
 Propagating Christian Knowledge was given liberty to solicit 
 contributions from various Churches and such contributions 
 were recommended. 
 
 In October, 1752, upon the memorial of certain "professors 
 of the Church of England " of Newtown, they were exempted 
 from paying taxes to support the ministry. This grant changed 
 their rights under the former laws in no way except that they 
 did not have to pay taxes to the Congregational collector 
 to be by him paid back to the Episcopal minister, and that the 
 
126 THE CHURCH 
 
 exemption was not conditional on their church attendance, 
 nor on the residence of the minister. The inhabitants of the 
 said town were given power to lay taxes, etc., exclusive of the 
 Episcopalians. 
 
 1757. In May, 1757, the parishioners of the Baptist Church 
 at Enfield were exempted from taxes for support of the minis- 
 try and for building meeting-houses of the Established Order. 
 In 1764, like privileges were granted the Baptists of Somers and 
 Suffield attending at Enfield, and to those of Willington and 
 Windsor, attending at Stafford. 
 
 1761. In May, 1761, the parishioners of Trinity Church, 
 (Episcopal,) of Fairfield, were given power to ojganize, appoint 
 a collector, lay taxes for supporting the minister and for build- 
 ing and repairing their church, substantially the same as the 
 established churches. 
 
 1764. In October, 1764, Societies and parishes were author- 
 ized to elect a Society Treasurer, with the same powers as 
 Town Treasurers. 
 
 Illegal voting in societies meeting was made punishable by 
 a fine of 15 shillings. 
 
 1766. In October, 1766, the oaths agreeable to an Act of 
 Parliament of Allegiance and Supremacy, Declaration against 
 Popery and Oath of Abjuration were ordered "printed with the 
 acts of this Assembly " and were so printed. 
 
 1769. In January, 1769, Joseph Meeham, a Baptist minister 
 of Enfield, who had married a member of his flock, contrary 
 to law, (as he was not a minister of the Established Order,) 
 was fined ; but the fine was remitted as there was no criminal 
 intent. 
 
 1770. In May, 1770, the Episcopal Church called St. John's 
 in New Milford, and in October, 1770, the Church in the town 
 of Pomfret, in the parish of Brooklyn, were respectively given 
 like privileges with Trinity Church of Fairfield. These three 
 Churches at Fairfield, New Milford and Brooklyn, were the 
 only Episcopal Churches in the Colony established by law. It 
 was, however, the intention of the Legislature to establish the 
 Episcopal Church at Newtown, as appears from the original bill 
 in Vol. 10, Ecclesiastical Manuscripts, but when the bill was put 
 in its final form, the rights voted to be given to the said Church 
 
IN CONNECTICUT. 12/ 
 
 were, by an error, given to such inhabitants of the town as were 
 not Episcopahans. In October, 1770, it was enacted that those 
 who dissent from the Standing Order "and attend public Wor- 
 ship by themselves " shall not incur the penalties of the law 
 "for not attending" Worship on the Lord's Day. 
 
 1777. In May, 1777, a law was passed giving the Strict Con- 
 gregationalists who have separated from the churches and con- 
 gregations established by law, substantially the same right of 
 organization and maintenance as other churches and exempting 
 them, under certain conditions, from taxes for the Established 
 Church. 
 
 The conditions of exemption were more numerous and rigid 
 than that required of the Episcopalians or other Dissenters, 
 even requiring that all of the names of the persons attending 
 the Separate Churches shall be lodged with the clerk of the 
 established society where they dwell. In one particular the 
 Episcopalians fared harder than any other Dissenters. They 
 were the only denomination whose taxes had to pass through 
 the hands of the Congregational collector, and whose exemption 
 was conditioned on the abode of their minister. On the whole 
 the Separates had the greatest grievance under the law and the 
 Episcopalians the next. 
 
 1784. An entire new revision of the laws was adopted in 
 1784, after the return of peace, and which in terms repealed all 
 former laws. The principal change in ecclesiastical matters 
 was the act relating to Dissenters from the Standing Order 
 which, for the first time, placed all Dissenters on the same level, 
 although they were still less favored than the regulars. 
 
 It provided that all Dissenters "whether of the Episcopal 
 Church or those Congregationalists called Separates, or the 
 People called Baptists or Quakers, or any other Denomination " 
 who have formed into distinct bodies, attend and support public 
 worship, and file a certificate to that effect with the clerk of the 
 society where they dwell, signed by their minister, shall be 
 exempt from taxes for the support of such society. Also that 
 such organized Dissenters shall have substantially the same 
 powers and privileges as the Ecclesiastical Societies established 
 by law. Also that all persons who do not attend and help sup- 
 port any other Public Worship shall be taxed in the Society 
 where they dwell. 
 
128 " THE CHURCH 
 
 In order to prevent a misconstruction of the law for not 
 attending, on the Lord's day, the worship and ministry estab- 
 lished by law, it was enacted that persons professing the Chris- 
 tian religion and dissenting from the established way, shall not 
 be prosecuted for non-attendance " on account of their meeting 
 together by themselves on said day for public worship in a way 
 agreeable to their conscience." 
 
 1791. In May, 1791, an act was passed in addition to and in 
 alteration of the exemption certificate law of 1784, whereby 
 no certificate was legal unless issued by two justices, (or by one 
 in case the town did not have two,) after an examination of the 
 person claiming exemption, and a decision that the claim was 
 " well founded." This act, together with the act which it 
 amended, was repealed in October, 1791, and a new act passed 
 granting exemption on the same conditions as before, upon 
 filing a certificate merely signed by the applicant, instead of by 
 the minister or justices. The names of the various dissenting 
 denominations were omitted. The revision of 1784 is the only 
 instance noted in which the word "Episcopal " occurs in the 
 statutes. The word Methodist does not appear in any revision. 
 
 1792. In October, 1792, contributions were ordered in the 
 several religious Societies and Congregations in this State, on 
 the first Sabbath of May annually, for three years, for the 
 support of such Missionaries as the General Association of this 
 State shall employ in the Northern and Western States where 
 " the ordinances of the Gospel are not established." 
 
 1795. In May, 1795, the General Assembly were given 
 power, on a proper petition, to authorize any school society to 
 appropriate the State school fund for the support of the Chris- 
 tian ministry, or the public worship of God; the same to be 
 used for the benefit of all religious societies, churches or con- 
 gregations of all denominations of Christians within its limits, 
 and to be proportioned according to the list of persons and 
 estates, including all individuals who may compose a part only 
 of such society, church, or congregation. This was in force 
 until the revision of 182 1, after which school money appro- 
 priated for any other purpose was to be forfeited. 
 
 1796. Another revision of the laws was made in 1796, with 
 no important change in ecclesiastical matters. 
 
IN CONNECTICUT. I 29 
 
 1808. The same is true with reference to the revision of 
 1808. 
 
 1816. In May, 1816, the penalty for blasphemy was changed 
 from whipping to imprisonment not exceeding two years, with 
 power to bind over for good behavior. 
 
 1817. In May, 1817, the exemption certificate law of 1791 
 for Dissenters was repealed and a new law enacted, whereby 
 any person could withdraw from any religious society to which 
 he belonged and join any other society of a different denomina- 
 tion, by leaving a certificate thereof with the town clerk, and 
 thereupon would not be liable for any future expense of the 
 society from which he withdraws. Under this law all religious 
 societies were for the first time placed on precisely the same 
 footing, excepting that every one who had not withdrawn was 
 supposed to belong to the parish of the Standing Order within 
 which he resided. The revision of 1784 placed all denom- 
 inations on substantially the same footing, but there was still 
 a lack of equality in that Dissenters were required to file a 
 certificate and the Standing Order were not, and further, it 
 made no difference with the taxes of one belonging to the 
 Standing Order whether he regularly attended public worship 
 or not, while this fact did make a difference with the taxes of 
 Dissenters, provided they helped to support a dissenting society. 
 
 1818. After the adoption of the new constitution in 1818, 
 a new revision was necessary and was printed in 1821. 
 
 The new constitution declared that, " The exercise and enjoy- 
 ment of religious profession and worship, without discrimina- 
 tion, shall forever be free to all persons in this state." That 
 " No preference shall be given by law to any christian sect or 
 mode of worship", and that " no person shall, by law, be 
 compelled to join or support, nor be classed with, or associated 
 to any congregation, church or religious association." Our 
 forefathers came here to enjoy religious freedom, which no 
 doubt they did, but it was two centuries after their coming when 
 that freedom was fully extended to all. 
 

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