Annals of an old parish; historical sketches of Trinity church, Southport, Connecticut, 1725 to 1898

Front matter

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Preface

The annals of a religious Society, whose inception long antedates this waning century, are necessarily the record of the varying vicissitudes through which it has passed ; the successes it has achieved ; as well as the unerring witness to the quality of the men and women, who, from the beginning, have been identified with its career. It follows then, that our venerable Parish, having been the representative of principles which, though unpopular with the many, were as dear to their upholders as their existence; having begun and maintained, for a century and three-quarters, a continuously vigorous life, in the face, a part of the time, of determined opposition; and having had in its membership specimens of the best brawn and intelligence of New England, must have in its past much that is interesting, and worth rescuing from oblivion. Possessed with this feeling, and also conscious that there are those of advancing years, whose memory of events and persons is still vivid ; who, in the course of nature, will not be with us a great while longer, the writer has felt impelled to prepare this volume. Nor is this all: Fairfield and Stratford — for the two places are indissolubly linked together in the early history of Episcopacy in Connecticut — formed the "cradle" in which the Church in these parts was nurtured ; and while it ought never to be forgotten by Churchmen, what a vast debt is due to such men as Johnson, and Caner, and Shelton, and to their successors, for the important part they took in its upbringing, there is another aspect of the matter. The writer is no bigot; he ever strives to own and cultivate a "judicial mind;" he disclaims any intention of being, under the guise of an impartial observer, a partisan; he is, however, constrained to state, as

VI. PKEFACE.

the result of his observations, his conviction, that the Denominations around him are also under great obligations to the Communion with which he is connected. The Protestant Episcopal Church, although they may not know, or be willing to acknowledge it, he believes, has helped materially to advance their condition. One has only to note the character of the prevailing religious services of to-day, to discern that it is the features the Church has always made part of its system, which are set forth in its Book of Common Prayer, that freely adopted, largely enables them to retain their hold upon their people. Nor is this a new departure. In the early part of the eighteenth century, the leanest kind of provision was made for those who attended Divine worship in the different meeting-houses ; and from that time onward there has been a gradual enrichment, until we reach the stage that is visible at the present time.

It must be difficult for modern non-Episcopalians, for example, who are accustomed to fine organs, and elaborate music, rendered by selected choirs; who hear the Te Deum, and Gloria in Excelsis, and Gloria Patri, sung every Sunday, aud the Apostles Creed recited ; the Psalms said antiphonally; who observe Christmas and are familiar with Easter floral decorations; who are fully aware that the trend of their worship is more and more in a liturgical direction, to realize that these things are all borrowed from the Episcopal Church ; that in the old days the keeping of Christmas and Easter, was considered sure evidence of affiliation with the Papacy; that the Lord's Supper and Holy Baptism were little esteemed and infrequently administered; that laymen, without a scintilla of authority, ordained other men to the sacred Ministry ; that laymen invariably performed the marriage ceremony; that the dead were buried, without any service being said over them at all. Yet such is the fact, and there is no question but that the Episcopal Church, by means of its Liturgy, its painstaking and reverent attention to the details of Divine Worship, its Sacra-

PREFACE. VII.

ments, its Ministry, the same ever as it is to-day, has perceptibly influenced the various religious bodies with which it has come in contact. They owe it then their good-will, and should surely be among those who regard its history in the past with kindly interest, and are resolved to pray for its prosperity in the years to come. These reflections are especially commended, with the writer's fraternal regards, to his neighbors, the religious Organizations of the Town of Fairfield.

Once in a great while allusion is made to the so-called disloyalty of the Episcopal Church in the time of the American Revolution. Its Clergy at that crucial epoch were mostly Englishmen; ordained in England; and supported altogether, or in part, by the Venerable Society of London. As was to be expected, they looked at events, as they came to pass, from the English point of view. Not a few of the Clergy, nevertheless, were devoted to the cause of the Colonies ; while the laity as a body were overwhelmingly on its side. What if a portion of the former remained steadfast to the old order of things? At least, they were sincere in their convictions, and honest in the maintenance of them. We have had an experience in the late Civil War that must teach us to view tenderly, and have great respect for, men who had the courage of their convictions, who refused under the greatest pressure to violate their oath of allegiance, and own submission to what they considered an usurping government.

The attention of the reader is particularly invited by the writer to the great value of the appendices. The quaint and interesting " Sketch of Trinity Parish," by the Rev. Philo Shelton, is printed in full for the first time. The almost priceless "Private Record of Baptisms, Marriages, Burials, etc., performed by Rev. Philo Shelton, during the Forty Years of his Ministry, 1785-1825 A. D.," has never been given to the public before, so far as is known. It contains over four thousand names, and deserves not only to be put in a shape which shall transmit it uumutilated to succeeding generations; but also to be made accessible to those, who at any future time, shall be interested iu genealogical researches among the early settlers of the Town of Fairfield. The copy of the " Record,'" now in the possession of Trinity Parish, was transcribed from the original, which is held as an heirloom in the Sheldon family, by Mr. Lewis B. Curtis, of Southport; to whose faithful and arduous labors the thanks of the writer are due.

Whatever may be the merit of the following pages, the writer makes no claim to originality. Others before him have treated portions of his subject exhaustively. It has been his purpose rather to collect than to construct that which is entirely new; to procure from all available sources such items of history as relate to Trinity Parish; and arrange them in the most conveuient order. The archives of the Venerable Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, of London, England, under whose welcome auspices, what is now the Protestant Episcopal Church, was introduced into Connecticut, have been consulted. The Town Records have been carefully searched. The Colonial Records, as far as published, have also been examined. The Rev. Dr. Beardsley's " History of the Episcopal Church in Connecticut;" as well as the admirable "Historical Discourse for the Jubilee of the Veuei'able Society," above mentioned, delivered in Trinity Church, Southport, August 10th, 1851, by the Rev. Nathaniel E. Cornwall, Rector, have afforded much necessary information, which has been freely utilized. The Parish Records preserved intact from the year of the destruction of the second Church and Parsonage, by the British, 1779, A. D. to the present day, have proved a source of enlightenment to so great an extent, that were they wanting, even this brief transcript of the past life of the Parish could never have been written. Various parishioners, and others who do not stand in that relation, have furnished a great deal of valuable material, both written and oral. As it would be invidious to specif^'^ one and not the rest, their names are not published. To all of them the writer's indebtedness is gratefully acknowledged.

PREFACE. IX

This does not pretend to be a perfect book. No history that was ever wi'itten, can claim to be faultless. The most careful, as well as diligent, student is always liable to make mistakes. The writer believes, though, there are but few in the work he now offers to his readers. Whatever genuine errors or notable omissions there may be, whoever discovers them, will do him a favor by pointing them out, and he promises that in due time they shall be corrected or supplied.

Southport, November 1st, 1898. E. G.

"Superficial it must be, but I do uot disown the charge. Better a superficial book which brings well and strikingly together the known and acknowledged facts, than a dull, boring narrative, pausing at every moment to see further into a millstone than the nature of the millstone will admit."

Sir Walter Scott, Journal, December 22?ic?, 1825.

CONTENTS,

I. First Settlement and Early History of Unquowa,

Afterwards, the Town of Fairfield, 1638 A.D. 1

II. Sketch of the Ecclesiastical Situation in Connecticut, 1638 A. D to 1818 A. D. - - - 6 III. Organization of the Venerable Society : Visit OF Keith and Talbot to the New England Colonies, 1702 A. D. ----- 10

IV. The Rev. George Muirson, the Rev. Messrs. Talbot, Sharpe, and Bridge, Officiate at Fairfield 1706-1723 A. D. - - - - - - 24

V. The Ministry of the Rev. Samuel Johnson, and the Building of the First Church at Mill Plain, 1723-1727 A. D. - - - - - 30

VI. The Rev. Henry Caner, the First Rector of Trinity Church, and the Building of the Second Church Edifice, 1727-1747 A. D. - - 38 VII. The Rev. Joseph Lamson's Rectorship, 1747-1773

VIII. The Rev. John Sayre's Rectorship : The Burning

IX. Mr. Philo Shelton, Lay Reader: Election of

Bishop Seabury, 1779-1785 A. D. - - - 56 X. The Rev. Philo Shelton's Rectorship : Building of the Third Church on Mill Plain, 1785-1817 A. D. --.-._-. 68 XL The Rev. Philo Shelton's Rectorship Continued : The Lottery: Founding of the Bible and Prayer Book Society of Trinity Parish, 1817-1820 A. D. - . 75

Contents

PAGE.

XII. Latter Years of Rev. Philo Shelton's Rectorship : His Death, 1820-1825 A. D. - - - 82 XIII. The Rectorship of the Rev. William Shelton,

XIV. The Rectorship of the Rev. Charles Smith: Erection of the Chapel at Southport, 1828- 1834, A. D. • - - - - - - - 94

Chapter I

The First Settlement and Early History of Unquowa, Afterwards THE Town of Fairfield, 1638, A. D.

Scarcely two and three-quarter centuries have passed, since the region in which the beautiful village of Southport now lies, was a savage wilderness. No foot of white man, unless it may have been that of some adventurous explorer, had ever trodden its solitary wastes. Bears in plentiful numbers roamed, where now abodes of refinement and culture abound. Wolves found an unmolested retreat amid thickets which no woodman's axe had ever invaded.* Everything was in its pristine dress ; hillside and glen ; forest tree and mossy rock ; wavy margined coast, and arbored running stream ; all were as nature made and meant them. Such was Unquowa in 1637, when a decisive battle was fought, within its borders, between a detachment of colonists and the remnant of the tribe of the Pequots. The habitat of the latter was the extreme eastern section of the Colony, reaching from the Niantic river to Ehode Island, where it had been guilty of numerous unprovoked attacks upon the dwellings and hamlets of the settlers. Driven to desperation, the colonists attacked their foes, destroyed their fort at Groton, and when they fled, pursued, overtook, and defeated them again, near where the Pequot Library building now stands. f

*Long after the settlement of Unquowa, tlie bears, the wolves and the wild-cats made frequent and ferocious attacks upon the Inhabitants. On August saod, 1666, " The Townsmen order that whoever kills a bear in the bounds of the town shall be paid fifty shillings for each old, and for cubs twenty shillings each." Child : An Old New England Town, p. 2S.

tThe symbol of brutism is war ; of civilization, a library. The Pequot Library picturesque architecturally, containing on Its shelves 15.000 well selected volumes, now marks the spot where the Pequots were exterminated. Over Its portal, cut in Imperishable granite, are these figures, 1637-1887. How many, as they go In and out, note their deep signification?

4 EARLY HISTORY OF UNQUOWA.

government which at that period was in the air ; which to-day is just as strongly a characteristic of the Anglo-Saxon race. They were seekers after pure doctrine, pure politics, pure worship, pure life. They desired to solve for all time the most difficult problem that touches the secular life of man — how toproduce a perfect civic condition ; to get as near Sir ThomaS' More's Utopian ideal as is possible on this mundane sphere.

The environment of these worthies, we must remember, was not as helpful for the achievement of such a great aim, as is ours. Three hundred years s^go the world was literally in its swaddling-clothes. It is really surprising, when we look intoit, how modern all that makes up the comfort of present living is. We feel ourselves aggrieved to-day, if we have not on our breakfast-tables, all that mankind said and did yesterday. The Puritans had no newspapers, no steam transit, no telegraph system, nor telephone. It was the middle of the seventeenth century before stage-coaches were introduced in England, and then it took four days to convey a passenger at the cost of four pounds, from London to York. Many lines did not even try to run in winter. The roads were so narrow that the Dover coach was drawn by six horses tandem, while the coachman walked by their side. The first carriage ever used in England, was invented by a Hollander for Queen Elizabeth. Erasmus tells us that salt beef and strong ale constituted the chief part of this great sovereign's breakfast ; that similar refreshments were served her in bed for supper ; and that, as forks were not invented, she ate with her fingers. There is hardly a thriving shopkeeper who does not occupy at the close of this nineteenth century, a house which English nobles in 1650, would have envied. Here in New England, life was even more primitive. There were no post-offices in Connecticut until 1790. Communication with the great centres was kept up by means of post-horses. "It was an exciting time when John Perry, the carrier of the mail, the man of news, the individual who kept Fairfield in touch with Boston, Stamford and interven-

EARLY HISTORY OF UNQUOWA. 5

iag towns, arrived and handed over mail and news together. He was appointed to office in 1687. The whole trip was made once a month during the winter, and once in three weeks during the summer."* Floors were carpetless; walls bare of plaster, the rafters showing; no pictures adorned the walls ; illumination was obtained from candles made of tallow, and moulded in the house. The cold in those days was intense. One writer mentions, " the bread freezing at the Lord's Table." Slavery flourished until a late date. There are few wills that, up to the beginning of this century,do not contain bequests of slaves. In 1790 there were 2,759, and in 1840, quite a recent date, 17 were still living. Such were the primitive conditions out of which the highly civilized Fairfield that we know so well, has emerged.

The Town of Fairfield extends from the Bridgeport line on the east, to the Sasco river on the west — a distance of about six miles ; and from Long Island Sound to the boundary of the town of Easton on the north. The ground is delightfully varied, consisting of plains and lofty hills, from which entrancing views of the blue water ax'e obtained. The population in 1890 was 3,868. •Child : An Old New England Town, p. .37.

Chapter II

Sketch of the Ecclesiastical Situation in Connecticut FEOM 1638, A. D., to 1818, A. D.

To understand clearly and fully the difficulties with which those in the Town of Fairfield who favored the Church of England had to contend, it is necessary that the ecclesiastical situation in Connecticut from its colonization in the first half of the seventeenth century, to the adoption of the new Constitution in the early part of the nineteenth, be set forth.

When Roger Ludlow and his companions settled in Fairfield, the only religious organization that was permitted to exist, was of the Congregational Faith and Order. As far as possible it was intended to be a stern, unyielding protest, against everything churchly with which the colonists had been familiar in their life beyond the sea.* One of its marked features was the close alliance it created between civil and ecclesiastical affairs. f The township and the church were one.J At the public meetings, matters

»It Is not unfair to assume tliat Roger Ludlow himself at last tired of the situation lie had helped to create. In 1654, incensed ostensibly at the interference of New Haven to prevent his town, Fairfield, from waging an Independent warfare against the Dutch, he went to Virginia, ( a Colony wholly settled by members of the Church of England,) taking the records of the town with him. It is not known when or where he died. Johnston : History of Connecticut, p. 20.

tManifestly the aim of the pilgrims was the construction of a theocratic state which should be to them, all that the theocracy of Moses, and Joshua, and Samuel had been to the Jews in Old Testament days. In such a scheme there was no room for religious liberty as we understand it. The state they were to found was to consist of a united body of believers, and in it there was apparently no more room for heretics than there was in Rome or Madrid." Fiske: The Beginnings of New England, p. 146.

+For nearly a century, the same persons In each town considered and decided ecclesiastical affairs indifferently, acting as a town or a church meeting. The same body laid the taxes, called the minister, and provided for his salary. Johnston : History of Connecticut, p. 60.

pertaining to both, wei'e discussed and passed upon. Thus the different town charges, the church, and the school went hand in hand, and every inhabitant was compelled by the law to contribute towards the maintenance of each. The result, in a brief space of time, was open revolt on the part of those whoj where their religious preferences were concerned, resolved to act independently. As far back as 1664, William Pitkin, and others, signing themselves, "Professors of the Protestant Christian Religion, members of the Church of England, and subjects to our Sovereign Lord, Charles the Second, by God's grace, King of England," addressed the General Assembly at the October session "declaring their aggrievances," and "petitioning for a redress of the same." Their grievances were that they were not under the care of those who " administered in a due manner " the Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper ; that they "were as sheep scattered, having no shepherd ; '" and they asked for the establishment of " some wholesome law " by virtue of which they might both claim and receive their privileges ; and furthermore, they humbly requested, " that for the future no law might be of any force to make them pay or contribute to the maintenance of any minister, or officer, in the church that will neglect or refuse to baptize their children and take care of them"' as church members. In 1690, a considerable number of the freeholders of Stratford, " professors of the Faith of the Church of England, asked permission to worship God in the way of their forefathers.'"* The ranks of such dissidents, no doubt by this time had largely increased, for communication between this and the mother-country had become so frequent, that additions to the population were constantly being made, and of these the Church of England must have

•As the number of colonists Increased, dissatisfaction Increased -wltli them. It often took the shape of complaints that the children of such persons were refused baptism ; but It may be suspected fairly that the natural wish to share In the control of the church whose expenses they helped to pay, had a great deal to do with It. Johnston: History of Connecticut, p. 236.

had a fair share. Petitions and strivings for liberty to worship God " according to the dictates of one's conscience," were though, of no avail. Church and State were, at this period, as closely connected as they ever were in England. The ecclesiastical and civil powers were blended together, and liberty of conscience, and the theory of human rights existed more in name than in reality. The people were required to support the Congregational Order, which was the Order of Faith established by the civil government. Nor was this all. None had liberty to worship publicly in any other way, nor could men vote or hold any civil office, unless they were members of some Congregational church.* This unwise as well as unnatural policy, was persisted in until 1708. In that year the General Assembly of Connecticut passed what was termed the "Act of Toleration,'' by which all persons who " soberly dissented " from the worship and ministry by law established, that is, the Congregational Faith and Order, were permitted to enjoy the same liberty of conscience with the dissenters in England, under the act of William and Mary.

That act exempted dissenters from punishment for nonconformity to the Established Church, but did not exempt them from taxation for its maintenance. And so, by appearing before the County Court, and there in legal forms declaring their "sober dissent," any persons in the Colony of Connecticut could obtain permission to have public worship their own way ; but they were still obliged to pay for the support of the Congregational churches in the place of their respective residences. It was this latter provision that practically negatived the Act of Toleration. How could Churchmen of limited means, no matter how ardent their love for their own Church, contribute at the same time for the upholding of a form of religion, for which, under the circum-

•Beardsley : History of the Episcopal Cliurcli in Connecticut, vol. 1, p. 8.

stances, they felt no sympathy 1 Add to this, the innate feeling that ever impels us to resist being driven against our wills, especially in the sphere of religion, and we have at once an explanation of the stalwartness of those who because of their resistance to the law, were haled to prison. In the Town of Fairfield there were many who were subjected to this penalty. Rev. Samuel Johnson, Rector of Stratford, in February, 1727, writes to the Venerable Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, at London : "I have just come from Fairfield, where I have been to visit a considerable number of our people in prison for their taxes to the dissenting ministers, to comfort and encourage them under their sufferings. But, verily, 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. There are thirty-five heads of families in Fairfield, who, all of them, expect what these have suffered : and though I have endeavored to gain the compassion and favor of the government, yet can I avail nothing ; and both I and my people grow weary of our lives under our poverty and oppression." Nor was this an isolated case. Letters sent to the Venerable Society by the missionaries, frequently contained complaints of persecutions because of their Religion. We adduce only one instance of what took place at Stratford: "On the 12th day of December, 1709, some of their officers, about midnight, did apprehend and seize the bodies of Timothy Titharton, one of our Church Wardens, and John Marcy, one of the Vestrymen, and forced them to travel, under very bad circumstances, in the winter season, and at that unseasonable hour of night, to the common gaol, where felons are confined, being eight miles distant, not allowing them so much as fire or candle-light for their comfort, and there continued them until they paid such sums as by the gaoler was demanded, which was on the 15th day of the same month."

On May 15, 1727, a petition was presented to the Assembly, signed by Moses Ward and Samuel Lyon, Church Wardens, and Dougal Mackenzie, John Lockwood, Nathan Adams, Benjamin Sturges, and others, in the name and behalf of all the rest of their brethren," stating that ten of them had been lately imprisoned for taxes, at Fairfield, praying that the sums of money so taken from them might be restored ; and declaring that if their grievances might be redressed, they should " aim at nothing but to live peaceably and as becometh Christians among their dissenting brethren." And in response to this petition, an act was passed, providing that the taxes collected fx*om Episcopalians for the support of religion, might, under certain circumstances, be paid to the Episcopal missionaries instead of the Congregational ministers. This movement of the early Churchmen of Fairfield, was the first effective step ever taken towards the establishment of religious liberty in Connecticut ; a result which it required nearly another century to bring to pass. Nor did their efforts to gain their end stop at this point. The above petition was followed up by another acknowledging the " great wisdom and Christian compassion " of the Assembly, and requesting liberty to manage their own affairs as a Society, according to the canons and rubrics of the Church of England, and expressiug their adherence to that Church, " let the difficulties be never so great." But this petition was rejected.

Afterwards, in 1738, when the Legislature was about to sell the land of several townships, which had been set apart for the maintenance of the Gospel, six hundred and thirty-six Episcopalians, heads of families, in nine parishes or missions, supplied by seven ministers, requested, by a petition* duly presented, that a small share of the avails of the laud

•A most manly memorial "to the Honorable the Governor, Council and Representatives In his Majesty's English Colony of Connecticut," very modestly and courteously entltlel by Its authors, " the humble address of the members and professor of that part of Christ's Church called the Church of England, living In and under the government of the said Coiony." Eccl. Affairs, vol. x, 324, to be sold, and of the funds from other sources for the same purpose, might be appropriated to them. But this, like every other attempt of Churchmen to secure to themselves equal rights in ecclesiastical affairs, met with an unfavorable reception at the hands of the Assembly.

Finally, in the year 1746, the Episcopalians, who had been allowed under former laws of the Colony, to vote with their Congregational neighbors in the meetings of the towns and societies by which the taxes for the maintenance of religion were laid, lost that privilege by an act of the Legislature, which required that none but Congregationalists should vote in such meetings. Against such partial legislation, those in sympathy with the Church of England, again entered their protest.*

All of these acts of the Colonial Legislature are interesting and important, as indications of the state and progress of Episcopal Parishes in Connecticut, from the year 1725 to the year 1750. The last instance, that of 1747, which is very singular, may probably be best accounted for by the fact, that the Episcopalians had become so numerous in some j)laces as to be quite formidable in the position of a third party, holding the balance of power, whenever divisions arose, as they often did in those days, among the Congregationalists themselves t

Harsh treatment of Churchmen, though, did not cease even in the latter half of the century. In the proceedings of the Venerable Society some years before the American Revolution, in connection with the statement : " There is at this present time, a number of ministers of the Church of England in prison on account of their persecution from the dissenters,"

*Tlius did the Churchmen of Connecticut occupy, thirty years before the Revolution, a position strikingly illustrative of the grand fundamental principle of that great movement ; namely, resistance to " taxation without representation."

t Rev. N. E. Cornwall : Historical Discourse . p. 26.

this remark is added, " these sort of complaints come now by almost every ship."*

While the successful issue of the war of the Revolution bettered somewhat the status of Churchmen, pains were taken to keep the control of the government in the hands of the ruling Order, and to shape things with reference to the perpetuity of its influence. The Congi'egational body was as yet the State Church. Every individual was still subject to personal liability for its maintenance. This continued until 1818, when the spirit of toleration that was abroad, led to the

*In proof of the Intolerance and persecution to wlilcli the early Churchmen of Connecticut were subjected, we cite as follows. The history of the Church In Connecticut, cannot be understood without such retrospect. We give our authorities:

In the early settlement of the New Haven Colony, after enacting that "none shall be admitted to the free Burgesses In any of the Plantations wlthla this jurisdiction, for the future, but such planters as are members of some orotherof the approved Churches In New England," and that "the Court shall, with all care and dllllgence, provide lor the maintenance of the purity of Keliglon ana suppress Vie contrary" ; It was enacted in April, 1644, " that the Judicial Laws of God, as they were delivered by Moses, * * * shall be a rule to all the Courts In this jurisdiction."