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Number of communicants 1809-1879
The
present town of Redding is one of the few places in the old
Colony of Connecticut where the Episcopal ministry is entitled
to the distinction of having been first on the ground, laying
foundations, and not building upon those already laid. The
Church of England was not planted in New England without strenuous
and bitter opposition from the Puritans, who were first in
the field. By old English law, indeed, that church was established
in all the plantations; Set it is manifest from the records
of the colonial legislation of the charter government of Connecticut,
that previously to 1727, the church of which the king was
a member was not recognized as having a right to exist. Congregationalism
was the established religion. " In opposition to which
there could be no ministry or church administration entertained
or attended by the inhabitants of any town or plantation,
upon penalty of fifty pounds for every breach of this act
" and every person in the colony, was obliged to pay
taxes for the support of this establishment.
In this uncongenial soil the Anglican Church of Connecticut
was planted--strange to say, not by foreign-born missionaries,
but by seceders from the ministry of the Congregationalists.
The pioneers in this movement were Timothy Cutler, Rector
of Yale College, Daniel Brown, Tutor; James Wetmore, of North
Haven; and Samuel Johnson, of West Haven, a former tutor in
the college. These gentlemen, after a professedly careful
and prayerful examination of the subject of church order;
discipline, and worship, which resulted in a conviction that
the English Church followed most closely the teachings of
the Scriptures and the practice of the church of the first
ages, sent to the trustees of the college a formal statement
of their views, and declared for Episcopacy--to the no small
surprise and consternation of their colleagues in the college
and church. The four went to England for Episcopal ordination,
where Brown died. The three survivors returned in 1722, as
missionaries of the " Society for the Propagation of
the Gospel in Foreign Parts," Johnson only being sent
to Connecticut. The anti-Revolutionary history of the church
at Redding Ridge is mostly to be found in the archives of
this Society, as published in the "Documentary History
of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Connecticut,” and
the Rev. Dr. Beardsley's “History of the Episcopal Church
in Connecticut''-from which sources, mainly, this sketch has
been compiled. A letter was addressed to the secretary of
the S. P. G., dated October 19th, 1722, signed by John Glover
and twelve other heads of families in Newtown, Thomas Wheeler,
of Woodbury, and Moses Knapp, of Chestnut Ridge, thanking
the Society for the services of the Rev. George Pigot, missionary
at Stratford, and earnestly soliciting the appointment of
a missionary for themselves at Newtown.
The next year, 1723, Mr. Pigot was transferred to Newport,
R. I., and the Rev. Samuel Johnson, his successor at Stratford,
" accepted all his missionary duties in Connecticut."
In 1727, the Rev. Henry Caner [pronounce Canner] was sent
to Fairfield, of which town Chestnut Ridge was a part. After
having named in his report the several villages or hamlets
in the vicinity of his station, he says: "Besides these,
there is a village northward from Fairfield about eighteen
miles, containing near twenty families, where there is no
minister at all, of any denomination whatsoever; the name
of it is Chestnut Ridge, and where I usually preach or lecture
once in three weeks." In 1728 he says there are four
villages " about Fairfield, --Green Farms, Greenfield,
Poquannuck and Chestnut Ridge, three of them about four miles
distant, the last about sixteen. The same year, the name of
Moses Knapp appears as a, vestryman of the church at Fairfield.
In 1729, “Moses Knapp, Nathan Lion, and Daniel Crofoot"
objected, in a meetings of the [Presbyterian] '' Society of
Redding " ''against" the " hiering" of
any other than a minister of the Church of England. These
three names appear again in the list of Mr. Beach's parishioners
in 1738. The Rev. Dr. Burhams [Churchman's Magazine,1823]
says: “'The first Churchman in Reading was a Mr. Richard
Lyon, from Ireland, who died as early as 1735.'' He also says
on the authority of " an aged member of the Church in
Reading," that “Messrs.[Richard] Lyon, [Stephen]
Morehouse, [Moses] Knapp, [Joshua] Hall, [William] Hill, [Daniel]
Crofoot, and [Lieut. Samuel] Fairchild, appear to have composed
the first Church in Reading." Nathan Lyon died in 1757,
in the fifty-fourth year of his age. Mr. Caner reported in
1728 seven families at Chestnut Ridge; the number reminding
us of the "House of Wisdom" with its '”Seven
Pillars," as the first Puritan organization at New Haven
was named.
Mr. Caner was succeeded at Chestnut Ridge, in 1732, by the
Rev. John Beach, a pupil of Johnson in Yale College, and afterward
Presbyterian minister at Newtown for several years. As Mr.
Beach was a resident of East Redding for about twenty years,
and pastor of this church full half a century, his history
is substantially that of the parish, or mission, over which
he presided. His pastorate was the longest of all the anti-Revolutionary
clergy. He was born in Stratford, October 6th, 1700; graduated
from Yale at the age of twenty-one, and licensed to preach
soon afterwards. He is said to have been selected for the
Presbyterian pastorate at Newtown as a " popular and
insinuating young man," well fitted to check the growth
of Episcopacy, which was there thriving under the ministry
of Caner and Johnson. Many Churchmen must have " joined
in settlings him with Presbyterian ordination," for in
1722 they claimed to be a majority of the population, whereas,
for some time after his " settlement," Mr. Johnson
ministered to only about five families. “ From these
visits ... frequent and earnest discussions resulted between
the two teachers, the influence of which was soon evident
to Mr. Beach's congregation. After two or three years of patient
study and meditation he alarmed his congregation by his frequent
use of the Lord's Prayer; and still more by reading whole
chapters from the Word of God. Next he ventured to condemn
a custom, common in their meetings, of rising and bowing to
the minister, as he came in among them, and instead of which
he begged them to kneel down and worship, God. At length [in
January, 1731], " after he had been a preacher more than
eight years, he told them from the pulpit that, 'From a serious
and prayerful examination of the Scriptures, and of the records
of the early ages of the Church, and from the universal acknowledgement
of Episcopal government for fifteen hundred years, compared
with the recent establishment of Presbyterian and Congregational
discipline,' he was fully persuaded of the invalidity of his
ordination, and of the unscriptural method of organizing and
governing congregations as by them practiced. He therefore,
'In the face of Almighty God,' had made up his mind to 'conform
to the Church of England, as being Apostolical in her ministry
and discipline, orthodox in her doctrine, and primitive in
her worship. He affectionately exhorted them to weigh the
subject well; engaged to provide for the due administration
of the sacraments while absent from them, and spoke of his
intended return from England in holy orders. So greatly was
he beloved, that a large proportion of his people seemed ready
to acquiesce in his determination." But the others, in
evident alarm and consternation at this " threatened
defection from their ranks," held a town meeting "
to consult" as to " what was possible to be done
with the Rev. Mr. John Beach, under present difficulties;"
"voted to have a [day of] solemn fasting and prayer;
…to call in the Ecclesiastical Council of Fairfield to
direct and do what they shall think proper, under the…difficult
circumstances respecting the Rev. Mr.; Beach, and the in-
habitants of the town of Newtown-also that the first Wednesday
of February [1732] be appointed for the fast.''
The council met, and in spite of Mr. Beach's remonstrance's
proceeded to depose him from the ministry. “ From this
resulted a printed discussion" between him and his deposers,
which ultimately helped rather than hindered the Church of
England. Mr. Beach returned from England in Episcopal orders,
and took charge of the Newtown and Redding mission in the
autumn of 1732. From this period his history and that of his
mission may be more accurately told in the language of his
own letters to the Secretary of the S. P. G.
“Newtown in Connecticut, August 7th, 1735.
" Reverend Sir, I think it my duty to acquaint the venerable
Society with the present state of my parish, although the
alteration since my last has not been very considerable. I
have baptized twenty-nine children and admitted twenty-five
persons more to the communion, so that the number now at Newtown,
Reading, and the places adjacent, is ninety-five. I preach
frequently and administer the Sacrament at Ridgefield …about
eighteen miles distant…where there are about fourteen
or eighteen families of very serious and religious people
who have a just esteem of the Church of England, and are very
desirous to have the opportunity of worshipping God in that
way. I have constantly preached, one Sunday at Newtown; and
the other at Reading; and after I have preached at Reading
in the day-time, I preach at Newtown in the evening; and although
I have not that success I could wish for, yet I do, and hope
I always shall, faithfully endeavour(as far as my poor ability
will allow,) to promote that good work, that the venerable
Society sent and maintained for me. I am, Rev. Sir,
" Your most humble servant,
" John Beach "
As a specimen of his manner of defending himself against personal
attacks we have the following from a controversial pamphlet,
in reply to John Dickinson, of New Jersey, in 1736
"I have evened the scale of my judgement as much as possibly
I could and to the best of my knowledge, I have not allowed
one grain of worldly motive on either side. I have supposed
myself on the brink of eternity, just going into the other
world, to give up my account to my great Judge; and must I
be branded for an antichrist or heretic, or apostate, because
my judgement determines that the Church of England is most
agreeable to the Word of God? I can speak in the presence
of God, who knows my heart better than you do, that I would
willingly turn - Dissenter again, if you, or any man living
will show me reason for it. But it must be reason (whereby
I exclude not the Word of God, which is the highest reason.)
and not sophistry and calumny, as you have hitherto used that
will convince a lover of truth and right."
In 1739 he says: "I have one hundred and twenty-three
communicants, but they live so far dis- tant from each other,
that commonly I can administer to no more than about fifty
at once, which occasions my administering it the more frequently;
and, though I meet with many discouragements, yet I have this
satisfaction, that all my communicants (one or two excepted)
do adorn their profession by a sober, righteous and godly
life." In 1743, some three years after Whitefield began
his famous " revival Of Puritanism," Mr. Beach says:
“ My people are not at all shaken, but rather confirmed
in their principles by the spirit of enthusiasm that rages
among the Independents roundabout us; and many of the Dissenters,
observing how steadfast our people are…while those of
their own denomination are easily carried away with every
kind of doctrine, have conceived a much better opinion of
our Church than they formerly had, and a considerable number
in this colony have lately conformed, and several Churches
are now building where they have no minister…Were there
in this country but one of the Episcopal order, to whom young
men might apply for ordination, without the expense and danger
of a voyage to England, many of our towns might be supplied
which must now remain destitute.''
(This letter is dated at " Reading, in New England,"
as all his published reports are, between 1740 and 1760.)
"My
people are poor, (he continues) and have but few negro slaves,
but all they have, I have, after instruction, baptized, and
some of them are communicants." In October of the same
year he says: " I beg the venerable Society's direction
in an affair I am just now perplexed with. There are about
twenty families at New Milford; and New Fairfield, which are
about fifteen miles hence. I preach to them several times
a year, but seldom on the Lord's day. They frequently come
to Church at Newtown; but by reason of the distance, they
can't attend constantly, and their families very seldom, and
when they can't come to Church, they meet together in their
own town, and one of their number reads some part of the common
prayer and a sermon. They are now building a Church…But
the Independents, to suppress the design in its infancy, have
lately prosecuted and fined them for their meetings to worship
God according to the common prayer… The case of these
poor 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, the mulct is much greater; and if they go to the Independent
meetings…they must endure the mortification of hearing
the Church vilified." After the death of the Rev. Joshua
Honeyman missionary at Newport R. I. in 1750, the church of
which he had the care, petitioned the Society that Mr. Beach
might be sent to them, as their minister. The petition was
granted, but Mr. Beach felt constrained, on account of feeble
health to decline the appointment ; fearing, as he said, that
" the people might complain that a worn out man was imposed
upon them."
The first church on Redding Ridge, which was built in 1733,
and was quite small, was in 1750 replaced by another on the
same site, fifty feet long and thirty-six wide, surmounted
by a turret, which, in 1797, was replaced by a steeple in
which was placed the first bell. This church, according to
the style of the period, was furnished with square, high-backed
pews, with seats on their four sides; so that some of their
occupants had to sit with their backs to the minister. And
though others doubtless besides Bishop Jarvis " could
see no necessary connection between piety and freezing,"
there was no heating apparatus in the churches until considerably
past the beginning of the present century. " Trinity
Church, New Haven, had no means of being warmed until 1822,
and none of the rural churches were supplied with stoves until
a much later period." Many persons in the rural districts
were in the habit of walking several miles, barefooted, to
church in summer; and probably did not feel the lack of shoes
a great privation. So common was it for men to go to church
without their coats, that the first time Bishop Seabury preached
in New Haven, a dissenting hearer reported that "he preached
in his shirt-sleeves." Often the family was mounted,
the parents with a child in arms to be christened, upon one
horse, and the older children upon another. Sometimes the
whole family were clustered together upon the ox- cart or
sled, and thus they went up to the house of God.
In 1759, three years after the breaking out of the "Old
French War," Mr. Beach, writing from "Reading, Connecticut,
in N. England," says: " My parish is in a flourishing
condition, in all respects, excepting that we have lost some
of our young men in the army; more, indeed by sickness than
by the sword, for this countrymen do not bear a campaign so
well as Europeans." Dr. Johnson's playful remark to his
son that, Mr. Beach had always these seeming inconsistencies,
to be always dying and yet relishing mundane things, "
would seem to indicate that his friend was not really so near
death's-door as he often imagined himself: for example, in
1761, when he says : "My painful and weak state of body
admonishes me that, although this may not be the last time
of my writing Set the last cannot be far off;''and he hail
supposed himself a " worn out man" seven years before.
Writing from " Newtown Oct. 3, 1764," he reports:
" My congregation at Reading has increased very little
for some years past, by reason that many who were won’t
to attend there, though living at a distance of 6, 8, or 10
miles, have lately built [each] 3 small church near them,
where they can more conveniently meet; viz., at Danbury, Ridgebury,
North Fairfield and North Stratford; which has very much retarded
the growth of the congregation at Reading: which now consists
of about 300 hearers at one time." Under date of April,
1765, he says : " I am now engaged in a controversy with
some of the Independent Ministers about those absurd doctrines,
the sum of which is contained in a thesis published by New
Haven College last September. They expressly deny that there
is which promises eternal life upon now consists of about
the condition of faith, repentance and sincere obedience;
and assert justification only by the law of innocence and
sinless obedience. Though my health is small, and my abilities
less, I make it a rule never to enter into any dispute with
them unless they begin, yet now they have made the assault,
and advocate' such monstrous errors as do subvert the Gospel,
I think myself obliged by my ordination vow, to guard the
people as well as I can against such strange doctrines."
Again he writes in October of the same year; after the publication
of that precursor of Revolution, the memorable " Stamp
Act," of 1765: " My parishes continue much in the
same condition as in my last. I have of late, taken pains
to warn my people against having any concern with seditious
tumults with relation to the stamp duty enjoined upon us by
the Legislature at home: and I can with truth and pleasure
say, that I cannot discover the least inclination towards
rebellious conduct in any of the Church people." 9 year
later he says: "For some time past, I have not been without
fear of being abused by a lawless set of men who style themselves
the Sons of Liberty, for no other reason than that of endeavoring
to cherish in my people a quiet submission to the civil government…It
is very remarkable, that in part of this Colony, in which
many missions and Church people abound, there the people are
vastly more peaceable and ready to render obedience to the
Government of England; but where there is no mission and few
or no Church people, they are continually caballing, and will
spill the last drop of blood, rather than submit to the late
Act of Parliament." In 1767 he says: " It is some
satisfaction to me to observe, that in this town [Newtown],
of late, in our elections, the Church people make the major
vote, which is the first instance of this kind in this Colony,
if not in all New England." again in 1769: "There
are in these two parishes about 2400 souls, of whom, a little
more than half profess the Church of England. There are about
fifty negroes, most of whom after proper instruction have
been baptized there are no heathens or infidels. I commonly
baptize about 100 children in one year, among them some black
children; My actual communicants are here are no Papists or
Deists." In 1771 he writes: " In Reading, my hearers
at once are about 300. There is it meeting of Presbyterians
about two and a half miles from our Church, in which the congregation
is not so large as ours. In a manner, all…who live near
the Church join with us; scarce any go by the Church to meeting."
“The Church, (he says in 1774) stands not in the centre
of the town, but on one side, to accommodate the Church people,
who live near, though out of the bounds of Reading."
One of the most interesting of his reports is that of May
5th, 1772 :
" It is now forty years since I have had the advantage
of being the venerable Society's Missionary in this place…Every
Sunday I have performed divine service, and preached twice,
at Newtown and Reading alternately ; and in these forty years
I have lost only two Sundays, through sickness; although in
all that time I have been afflicted with a constant cholic
which has not allowed me one day's ease, or freedom from pain.
The distance between the Church…is between eight and
nine miles, and no very good road ; yet I have never failed…to
attend at each place according to custom, through the badness
of the weather, but have rode it in the severest rains and
snow storms, even when-there has been no track, and my horse
near sinking down in the snow-banks; which has had this good
effect on my parishioners, that they are ashamed to stay from
Church on account of bad weather. I have performed divine
service in many towns where the Common Prayer had never been
heard nor the Holy Scriptures read in public, and where now
are flourishing congregations of the Church of England ; and
in some places where there never had been any public worship
at all, nor sermon preached by any teacher, of any denomination.
" In my travelling to preach the Gospel, once was my
life remarkably preserved in passing a deep and rapid river.
The retrospect of my fatigues, lying on straw &c, gives
me pleasure while I flatter myself that my labor has not been
quite in vain; for the Church of England people are increased
more than 20 to 1, and what is infinitely more pleasing, many
of them are remarkable for piety and virtue; and the Independents
here are more knowing in matters of religion, than they who
live at a distance from the Church. We live in harmony and
peace with each other and the rising generation of Independents
seem to be entirely free from every pique and prejudice against
the Church. "In a previous report he said: "They
who set up the worship of God according to our Liturgy, at
Lanesboro' at Nobletown and Arlington, proceed chiefly from
my parishes. But notwithstanding these frequent emigrations,
my congregations increase.”
His last report, which was made about six months before his
death, is dated October 31st, 1781, and is as follows: “It
is a long time since I have done my duty in writing to the
venerable Society, not-owing to my carelessness, but to the
impossibility of conveyance from here. And now I do it sparingly.
A narrative of my troubles I dare not now give. My two congregations
are growing: that at Reading being commonly about 300 and
at Newtown about 600. I baptized about 130 children in one
year, and lately 3 adults. Newtown and the Church of England,
part of Reading are, I believe, 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.
But God has preserved us from entire destruction. " I
am now in the 82d year of my age; yet do constantly, alternately,
perform and preach at Newtown and Reading. I have been 60
years a public preacher, and, after conviction, in the Church
of England 50 years; but had I been sensible of my inefficiency,
I should not have undertaken it. But now I rejoice in that
I think I have done more good towards men's eternal happiness,
than I should have done in any other calling. " I do
most heartily thank the venerable Society for their liberal
support, and beg that they will accept of this, which is,
I believe, my last bill, viz : L326, which, according to former
custom, is due [probably at L50 per annum for six years and
a half, or from 1775.] At this age I cannot well hope for
it, but I pray God I may have an opportunity to explain myself
with safety ; but; must conclude now with Job's expression
: 'Have, pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends!!'
Tradition has preserved a few incidents in his experience
during the War of Independence: “ In the autumn of 1775,
several officers of the militia, having collected a number
of soldiers and volunteers from the different towns in Western
Connecticut, undertook to subdue the tories. They went first
to Newtown, where they put Mr. Beach, the Selectmen, and other
principal inhabitants, under strict guard, and urged them
to sign the Articles of Association, prescribed by the Congress
at Philadelphia. When they could prevail upon them neither
by persuasion nor by threats, they accepted a bond from them,
with a large pecuniary penalty, not to take no arms against
the Colonies, and not to discourage enlistments into the American
forces."
Shortly after the declaration of Independence (i.e., July
23d, 1776) the Episcopal clergy of the colony fearing to continue
the use of the Liturgy as it then stood-praying for the kings
and royal family-and conscientiously scrupulous about violating
their oaths and subscriptions, resolved to suspend the public
exercise of their ministry. “All the churches were thus
for a time closed, except those under the care of Mr. Beach.
…He continued to officiate as usual" (as himself
testifies) during the war. " Though gentle as a lamb
in the intercourse of private life, he was bold as a lion
in the discharge of public duty ; and, when waned of personal
violence if he persisted, he declared that he would do his
duty, preach, and pray for the Kings till the rebels cut out
his tongue."
Whether the following were separate incidents, or are but
different versions of one and the same, is uncertain: It is
related that a squad of soldiers marched into his church in
Newtown, and threatened to shoot him if he prayed for the
king; but when, regardless of their threats, he went on, without
so much as a tremor in his voice, to offer the forbidden supplications,
they were so struck with admiration for his courage, that
they stacked their arms and remained to listen to the sermon.
A band of soldiers entered his church during service, seized
him, and declared that they would kill him. He entreated that,
if his blood must be shed, it might not be in the house of
God. Thereupon they took him into the street,.where an axe
and block were soon prepared “Now, you old sinner (said
one), say your last prayer." He knelt down and prayed:
" God bless King George, and forgive all his enemies
and mine, for Christ's sake." One of the mob then pleaded
to " let the old fellow go, and take some younger man
instead."
The following is familiar to the people of Redding Ridge parish.
The old church of 1750 had a single door in the centre, and
the pulpit and chancel were at the west end, opposite the
door. A squad of sol- diers, seven in number (hired, it is
said, by Squire Betts with a gallon of French brandy to shoot
Mr. Beach), gathered before the open door of tile church,
and from one of them a bullet was fired which lodged in one
of the ribs of the sounding-board, a foot or more above the
head of the venerable preacher. As the congregation sprang
to their feet in unfeigned consternation to rush from the
church, he quieted them by saying: “Don' t be alarmed,
brethren. Fear not them that kill the body; but are not able
to kill the soul; but rather fear him which is able to destroy
both soul and body in hell;" and then proceeded with
his discourse as if nothing had happened. The " History
of the Episcopal Church in Connecticut " informs us that
" the Redding Association of Loyalists was a strong body,
whose secret influence was felt throughout the mission of
the venerable pastor;" but how or in what way that influence
was exerted, does not appear. The " Sons of Liberty"
have been already mentioned in Mr. Beach's reports.
After the death of Mr. Beach in 1782, the Revs. Richard Samuel
Clarke and Andrew Fowler officiated here alternately for a
short time. Clarke emigrated to Nova Scotia with others of
the missionaries, and many of the members of their flocks,
in 1784 or 1785. He returned on a visit in October, 1780.
The discontinuance of the stipends of the missionaries by
the S. P. G., whose charter restricted its benefactions to
the British provinces and plantations, was a severe blow to
the Episcopal churches, which had been already greatly weakened
by the effects of the War of the Revolution. Mr. Beach's congregations
were exceptions to the general rule, in that they increased
while others diminished in numbers; but whether few or many
of the Redding Churchmen formed a part of the thirty thousand
Loyalists who, Hawkins says, emigrated to the British provinces
from New England and New York, it is impossible to ascertain.
It is not probable, however, that there were half that number
of Churchmen in all New England at the close of the war. The
next name on the list of ministers of this parish is that
of Truman Marsh in 1785, who " visited the Parish every
third Sunday;" but, as he was not ordained till 1790
he must have been only a licensed lay-reader, though it is
not improbable that he preached--as some of that class did,
in those days when there was a dearth of ordained ministers.
In 1794 the Rev. David Perry, M.D., minister of the parishes
of Redding, Ridgefield, and Danbury, in consequence of some
reports to his disadvantage as a clergyman, and of some errors
in regard to baptism, was suspended from the ministry, and
the next year, at his own request, deposed. He returned to
the practice of medicine in Ridgefield.
The revenues of the Church were gathered after the Revolution
much as they were before. "The Episcopal parishes were
taxed to build churches and to sustain religious services,
and the Diocesan Con- vention assessed the parishes to provide
for the Bishop's Fund. Each parish was required to make an
annual return of what was called the' Grand Levy'--that is,
its taxable list according to its last enrollment--and upon
this return rested the right of a lay delegate to his sent
in the Convention. The resolution which fixed this rule was
adopted in 1803. The first published Grand Levy appeared in
the Journal of 1806 ; and from that time onward for fifteen
years the roll of the lay delegates was accom panied by the
taxable list of the several parishes which they represented.
If the list of any parish exceeded ten thousand dollars, such
parish was en- titled to two delegates." The Grand Levy
of the Redding parish in 1806 was $12,960.00
" It is interesting to note the changes since that period
in the relative wealth of the Church in Connecticut. In those
early days, as reported, Litchfield was stronger than Waterbury
or Hartford, Woodbridge was stronger than Meriden, Huntington
than Derby, Redding than Bridgeport, and Newtown than New
Haven."
The longest pastorate since Mr. Beach was that of his great-grandson,
the Rev. Lemuel B. Hull, who resigned his charge in 1836,
after twelve years ser- vice. " In 1815, a fund of a
little more than $3000 was raised"
On the second Tuesday in October, 1833--the year in which
the present church edifice was built--the Annual Convention
of the Diocese at Norwich failed to organize for want of two
more by delegates to form a quorum. “On the morning of
that day, at three o'clock, the steamboat New England, on
her passage from New York to Hartford, having on board seventy-one
persons, burst both her boilers near Essex, and eight persons
were immediately killed and thirteen seriously injured. Among
those who were fatally injured were Mr. John M. Heron and
Dr. Samuel B. Whiting, lay delegates from Christ Church, Redding;
and they were within a mile of their landing-place at the
time of the accident.''
In the spring of that year several members of the parish withdrew
by certificate; among these was John Meeker, clerk. At a parish
meeting October 25th, 1834, the vestry were instructed "to
take proper [legal] steps to procure the Records of the parish
from the hands of the late Clerk, without delay." At
another meeting in December following, the agents of the parish
(James Sanford, Jr., and Charles Beach) were authorized to
"prosecute to final judgment such suits-as they should
deem necessary for the recovery of the books, records, funds
or other property of the Society, before any Court proper
to try the same." In October,1835, fifty dollars were
appropriated from the parish treasury " to enable the
agents to carry on the suit commenced against the heirs of
John Meeker, deceased." Some money was thus recovered,
but the records have never yet been found.
In 1847 the old parish debt of $870 (incurred in the building
of the church in 1833) was paid by subscription.
In 1850 the parish fund, about $2700, which before had been
held as a loan by members of the parish, was by a considerable
effort, and against the desire and judgement of the minority,
collected and invested in the stock of the Fairfield County
Bank. The same year the church edifice was altered and repaired,
at an expense of $380.25. " On Advent Sunday” of
this year, " the last Sunday of my ministry" (says
the Rev. Joseph P. Taylor),'"the sum of $600 was collected
at the Offertory for the purpose of building a new parsonage."
" The above-named sum," says the Rev. Orsamus H.
Smith, his successor, " having been put upon the plate
in written pledges, there remains of them unredeemed in April,
1853, from fifty to one hundred dollars," which being
"part of the money relied upon for the building, . .
. the Vestry were obliged to borrow it, and it remains a debt
upon the parish. The new house was finished in October, 1851,
and immediately occupied by the family of Mr. Smith.
In 1858, says the Rev. W. W. Bronson: "The Glebe lot
was very much improved by the purchase of a strip of land
on the west side and the erection of a suitable fence, mainly
through the exertions of the ladies of the parish.
" In 1863 the organ was repaired, and the broken bell
replaced by a new one of similar tone, from Meneeley's, at
Troy.
In 1873 the church spire was repaired, and the old [English]
weathercock, a relic of Colonial times (one of whose legs
had been shot off by one of Tryon's soldiers in 1777), having
persistently refused to remain upon his perch, was excused
from further duty, and a gilded cross erected in his place.
The venerable bird, however, is still to be seen on one of
the outbuilding of the great-grandson of the Rev. John Beach,
in East Redding. The parsonage was adorned in 1874 with a
new and spacious veranda, in 1876 with a set of blinds.
The noticeable incidents of the present year, 1879, are the
destruction of the church sheds by fire in the evenings of
the 12th of May, and the acquisition of a baptismal font of
Italian marble, purchased with contributions of the Sunday-school
and other members of the parish, collected during the rector
ship of the Rev. Mr. Kelley. The number of nominal communicants
is sixty-five ; of baptized persons, about one hundred and
twenty.
List
of Ministers Officiating in the Parish of Christ Church,
Redding, Connecticut
Henry
Caner-1727 to 1732
John Beach-1732 to 1782
Alternates: R.S. Clarke-1782; Andrew Fowler-1782
Truman Marsh-1785
David Beldon-1786, Officiated a short time only on account
of ill-health.
Ambrose Hull-1789 to1791
David Perry, M.D.-1791-Suspended Nov. 1794
David Butler-1799 to1804
Elijah G. Plumb-1806 to 1811
Reuben Hubbard-1812 to 1818
Ambrose S. Todd, D.D.-1820 to 1823
Lemuel B. Hull-1824 to 1836
Edward J. Darken, M.D.-1836 to 1837
Charles Jarvis Todd-1838 to 1842
William Atwill-1842 to 1845
David H. Short, D.D.-1845 to 1846
Abel Nichols-1846 to1847
Joseph P. Taylor-1847 to 1850
Orasmus H. Smith-1850 to 1853
Abel Ogden-1853 to 1854
James Adams-1854 to 1856
Wm. White Bronson-1857 to 1860
Alfred Londerback-1861 to 1862
Henry Zell-1863 to 1863
Wm. L. Bostwick-1864 to 1867
John W. Hoffman-1868 to 1871
Charles W. Kelley-1873 to 1876
Ximenus Alanson Welton-1877
Number
of communicants belonging to Christ Church, Redding, Connecticut
1809-55
1810-63
1811-67
1815-61
1817-61
1845-42
1851-60
1854-56
1856-57
1858-58
1859-56
1860-47
1863-55
1866-45
1869-37
1873-40
1874-55
1875-61
1877-59
1878-64
1879-65
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