History of Fairfield County, Connecticut

"It was not until more than thirty years after the death of Mr. Webb, and late in the pastorate of Mr. Hobart, his successor, that the society voted and agreed 'that the rendering of I'salms lino by line in ye estalilished religious congregation in this society shall be omitted for the future.' ^Ir. Webb's minis- try seems to have been a pleasant and successful one, although it is evident from souu^ hints in the records that late in its continuance both lie and the meeting- ■ house in which he preached became sadly out of repair. "The people showed their appreciation of his .ser- vices by voting several years in succession an annual increase to his salary, and in March, 1732, the society voted to call some suitable person t(j assist him in the work of the ministry. Mr. Webb died at a place called Unity, on the 19th of September, 1732, and was brought home the next day and buried the day after. He wa.s a Fellow of Yale College from the year 1700 until his death. Respecting his family no account is found I'lirthcr than several of the memlicrs lie in the ohl burying-ground. "Rev. Noah Hobart, wdio had been invited to as- sist Mr. Webb a few months bef oc he dfjiartcd this life, was called Oct. 30, 1732, to lie pastor of the church. The salary promised was two hundred jiounds, current bills of credit, or in silvi'r money at eighteen shillings the pound, ]irovided he resign the whole use of the parsonage to the society. This par- sonage land seems to have been a somewhat extensive tract, and it was ordered by the society to be leased. " He accepted the call a!ul eomlitions, and was or- dained by the Consociation of Fairticid County on the 7th of February, 1733. " Mr. Jlobart was born in llingham. .Mass.. .Tan. 12, 170li. He was the son of David Hobart, ami grand- son of Kev. Peter Hobart, first pastor of the eliureh in that town. President Dwighl gave this testimony concerning him : He possessed high intellectual and moral distinction. He had a mind of great acuteness and discernment, was a laborious student, was exten- sively le[irneil, especially in history and theology; a<lorned the doctrine which he professed by an exem- |ilary life, and was holdeii in high veneration for his wisdom and virtue. His ministry here covered a period of forty years, 1733 to 1773, and was one of great activity. He was largely engaged iu contro- versy, especially with respect to the validity of Pres- byterian ordination, which he snccessliilly defended. Dr. Sjirague writes of him that he lived to bury two wives, eight children, and one thousand and ninety- three parishioners. He died in great ]ieace on the (ith of December, 1773. having on the Sabbath previ- ous to his death preached twice with more than his usual animation. During his ministry Daviil R<iw- land and Xathan Buckley were elected deacons. The ohl meeting-house seems to have been fast hastening to decay, and December, 1739, two disinterested jjcr- sons, Jlessrs. Edward Lewis, of Stratford, and .Tohn Betts, of Norwalk, were appointed a committee to .see . ... and give their opinion whether it were worth repair- ing. AVhatcver the report of this committee may have been, the society decided to make repairs, and we may judge something of the nature of the building by the resolutions that w'crc jiassed. It was voted ' to ]iut in ui'W sills, two lites between the posts, ex- ce]iting where the doors arc ami tliat sipiare wln-re the pulpit is dark; the meeting-house to be covered with white-wood siding, the seats (benches, 1 sup- jKise) to be put closer together, and pews to be built in convenient places, to he sold to [lay for these re- ]iairs.' This luxury of pews (probably square with high backs over wdiich the children emild seaieely look) seems to have somewhat per j ilex ed and iron bled the good people of these early days. A committee had to be called in from Korwalk and Strattbnl to say who shall have the jiew jilaces and what price they should pay for them, and when some persons on their own responsibility erected something like 348 HISTORY OF FATRFIELD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT. them in the meeting-house, the society ordered these to be removed and such jjcrsons to he hereafter prose- cuted. Time and again afterwards at the annual meetings of the society, and after a new meeting- house had been built, it was voted ' that no person should hire one who was not the head of a family, tliat no one should hire more than one, and that no one should bid for one unless he belonged to Mr. Ho- bart's meeting.' "Six years after making the repairs alluded to a new meeting-house was ordered to be built, its dimen- sions to be si.xty by forty-four feet, and twenty-si.\ feet in height, with a stee])le one hundred and twenty feet high. A bell was sulisequently procured and the County Court asked to help obtain it and to use it, with which request it is uncertain whether the court complied. " This bell was rung every night at nine of the clock, and afterwards also at noon. Thus the new sanctuary was finished, but not to be so lasting as its predeces- .sor. The bell that tolled at the funeral of Mr. llobnrt, in December, 177:?, was doomed within less than si.\ years to fall with the burning steeple on which it was hung. " On the 7th of February, 1774, the society sent Mr. Elijah Abel to Cambridge, to wait on Mr. Andrew Eliot, Jr., of Fairfield, and as the result of this mis- sion, Mr. Eliot was called to the pastorate of the church on the 4th of the following April, and, accept- ing the call, was ordained and installed on the 22d of June, 1774. On this occasion his father preached the sermon, and Messrs. JIather, Dickinson, Wells, Sher- wrtod, and Tx-wis, all jiastors of churches in the Con- sociation of Fairfield West, performed other parts of the service. " Jlr. Eliot was the .son of Rev. Andrew Eliot, D.D., the distinguished pastor of the North Street Church in Boston, and was born in that city in 1743. After his graduation, in 1702, at Harvard, he was appointed to the office of butler in that college, and at a fire which destroyed the old building lost all hisjiersonal proj)erty. In 17f)S he was chosen tutor, and in 1773 fellow of the corporation, which offices he resigned on coming to Fairfield. During his connection with Harvard, he l)reached often and with great acceptance at Roston and Cambridge, and brought gratifying testimonials from the ministers there of his learning, prudence, and |>iety, which his ministrj' of thirty-one years among this people fully justified. The society prom- ised for his support one hundred and twenty pounds lawful money and use of the ]>arsonage, he to release all claim and demand or use of lands called |)arson- age lands, exce|)t the lot called .\])|ilcgate's lot, ad- joining the house where John Whitciir, 8r., once lived. The early part of Mr. Eliot's ministrj' was pn.ssed in the troublous times of the Amcrienn Revo- lution. |» " The latest record concerning the mecting-hou.se built during Mr. Hobart's pastorate is as follows: At a church-meeting, April 25, 1779, voted that Messrs. Diodate Silliman, Peter Hendricks, Samuel Sturges, David Allen, Peter Jennings, James Penfield, I.srael Bibbins, Jeremiah Jennings, and any others of the church and society who are skilled in psalmody, be desired to sit together in the gallery on the Lord's day and lead the congregation in that part of divine worshij), they to agree among themselves as to the person who is to ])iteh the tune. "May 6th, voted that the thanks of this church be given to Mr. Daniel Osborne, for his services in set- ting the psalm for the two years ])ast. Here then we have another advance, showing that it is just ninety years ago last .Vpril since the occupation of precentor ceased, and a choir was introduced into the public services of the church. Although the names of only eight persons are mentioned, and these all men, — ])robably young men, — there can be no reasonable doubt that the ofherK who were nkillerl in pmlmodij were of that gentle sisterhood, without whose presence the choir wimhl have lacked the needful constituents of full and perfect harmony. " There are several pages in the old record in the clear and beautiful handwriting of Andrew Eliot. "The resignation to the will of God in this dispen- sation appears all the more beautiful when we re- member that Mr. Eliot's house, which, with a few others, had been nuirked for preservation, was by some accident consumed, together with his furniture and a large and choice library. Thus for a second time was he called to pass through the fire. "It was on Thursday morning that the church building was consumed. " On the next Lord's day the church ami the .so- ciety met with the pastor and carried on religious exercises as usual at the house of Deacon Bulkeley. "Afterwards, for five successive Sabbaths, public worship was conducted at the dwellings of Diodate Silliman, Peter Perry, and Justin Hobart, the Lord's Su])pcr being celebrated at the usual time at the last- named place. " An interval of three weeks followed, in which there was no service on account of the illness of the pa.stor, and then, after an afternoon service at the house of Elizabeth Morehouse, in Jennings' Woods, Mr. Justin IIiibarl"s hotise was a]>pointed the stated place of public worship, except that once in a month it was agreed to hold it in Jennings' Woods. "This arrangement continued for a year, until Sept. 10, 1780, when the public service was carried on and continued afterwards in the new court-house. "The conlhigration of Fairfield in I77!' brought much distress upon the peuplc, and an abatement of society taxt-s was nuide to those not able to |)ay. Mr. Eliot received some aid at the hands of his friends in Boston, but his salarj- was for a number of years sadly behind in its jiayments. The society .sold the iron and nails of the burned meeting-house, and applied the proceeds to the building of the town-house. FAIEFIELD. 340